&Z mallet: geology of darjiling and western duars. 



Lodes equal to the better Darjiling 1 seams would no doubt be 

 sufficiently attractive in Cornwall to tempt speculation ; but the conditions 

 in an old mining country, where the requisite personnel and materiel 

 are both at hand, can scarcely be compared to those in the Himalaya 

 mountains. Metal mining under the most favorable circumstances must 

 always be a speculative undertaking, as the rapid fluctuations in the 

 value of mining shares and the long lists of non-dividend-paying mines 

 in England abundantly shows. It cannot be asserted that an attempt 

 to work some of the Darjiling seams must end in loss, but the conditions 

 are not such that one can feel very sanguine of success. 



If any such attempt should be made, it ought to be confined at first 

 exclusively to mining, and no expense incurred in preparations for 

 dressing and smelting until it has been shown that there is a prospect 

 of the mine yielding a fair return. The ore brought to grass meantime 

 could be dressed in the native method, and sold to the native smelters, 

 or sent to England, if it should be found advisable in the end to give up 

 the project. It would, of course, be absolutely necessary that the work 

 should be put under the superintendence of a skilled European miner. 

 The workability or otherwise of the Damuda coal will have important 

 influence on the expense of qo^qx -smelting in the Darjiling hills. 



I do not think the natives can be easily induced to adopt a better 

 system of mining. It is that which they and 

 their fathers before them have always practised ; 

 they have no one to teach them a better, nor capital, or perhaps inclina- 

 tion, to adopt it if they were taught. One step, however, in this direction 

 might, I believe, be taken — by granting longer leases of the mines. 

 The present system is to put up the leases to auction yearly ; one which 

 must foster a hand-to-mouth mode of working, as the lessee's interest 

 is to get as much as possible out of the mine at the time, careless of what 

 becomes of it afterwards. If he were sure of possession for a term of 

 years, it would be more worth his while to attempt some degree of 

 system. No doubt he can always retain possession by bidding highest, 

 ( 82 ) 



