148 Mode of extracting Gold Dust. [April, 



westward of the Indus. Runjit Sinh has prohibited the manufacture of 

 salt in all parts of his dominions, yet it is very questionable if he will ever 

 derive so large a revenue from it as he now expects. The farmer of the 

 monopoly, a cruel and tyrannical man, is now mercilessly oppressing the 

 people to extract it. The natives do not know the period at which 

 these mines were first worked, but it must have been at an early date 

 since the mineral is laid open by the Indus. They were used by the 

 Emperors of Hindustan, but the inquiring Baber does not mention them 

 in his Commentaries. 



VI. — Mode of extracting the Gold Dustfrom the Sand of the Ningthee 

 River, on the frontier of Manipur. 



[Extracted from Captain Grant's Letter to Mr. G. Swinton, dated Manipur, 1st 



March, 1832.] 



Read 4tli April, 1832. 

 I forward a specimen of the gold found in the sand of the Ningthee river, 

 and partly extracted in my presence. The process is very simple, as 

 is also the apparatus employed ; the latter consists of a plank four feet 

 in length, two and a half wide at the upper end, and tapering towards the 

 lower one, which is one and a half; it is hollowed out so as to leave an edge 

 of half an inch round the sides and upper end, the under end being left open 

 for the water to run off; the lower half of the plank is cut into a succession 

 of grooves half an inch deep and the same in width. This plank is placed 

 slightly sloping towards the lower end, and the sand washed through a 

 coarse sieve which frees it from the pebbles and gravel : the fine sand which 

 remains in the grooves of the plank is then placed in a wooden tren- 

 cher, polished on the inside with keoo*, and in shape and size resembling 

 a shield, with a very small receptacle in the centre : this is immersed 

 so as to leave its outer edge on a level with the surface of the water, 

 and by a rotary motion, the fine sand is washed off and the gold re- 

 mains in the small receptacle. The whole operation occupied about a 

 quarter of an hour, and the quantity of gold found was about a grain 

 troy weight. Gold is found in greater abundance at most other 

 places, where searched for in the sands of the Ningthee, than at Helaoo, 

 where I witnessed the process ; it is also only found where the sand is 

 mixed with pebbles and gravel : the black sand, which accompanies it, is 

 invariably found with the gold ; its appearance, in fact, denotes the pre- 



* The black varnish of the keoo tree, which grows in the Rutboo valley, 

 supposed by Dr. Wallich to be the same as the varnish tree of Ava. G. S. 



