514 Scientific Intelligence. [Nov. 



IX. — Scientific Intelligence. 



Slate Quarries in the Western Ghdts. 



From official reports lately communicated from the Bombay Government to 

 this presidency, with the perusal of which we have been kindly favored, we learn 

 that Lieut, Jervis of the Bombay Engineers has brought forward propositions 

 for the working of quarries in the extensive clay slate formations in the southern 

 Marhatta country. That officer has sent down specimens of slates adapted to 

 the several purposes of roofing, flooring, monumental stones, dials, dripstones, 

 whet-stones, and drawing slates ; accompanied with samples of marble, porphyry, 

 lithographic stone, mill-stone, sand-stone, &c. all of which he shews may be turned 

 to great advantage in an economical point of view. He calculates, that slates 

 may be substituted for tiles in roofing and flooring, with a saving of weight and 

 expence — the weight of a 100 square feet of slate being 1 to 3 cwts. while that of 

 single tiles is 7 cwts. The expence of the slates at Bombay would be 8 to 15 rupees 

 per 100 sq. ft. cut and squared. There seems, however, a difference of opinion on the 

 subject among those conversant with building ; and it does not appear, that the 

 best slates in Europe are much, if at all, lighter than the tiles used in this coun- 

 try. The slates would, like the Chunar stones used in our western provinces, admit 

 of the beams being placed further apart, and of the burgars being dispensed with ; 

 and this alone, if the land carriage be not very heavy, will produce a demand 

 for so useful and elegant a roofing material. The following is an extract 

 from Captain Jervis's report on the subject, dated March, 1832. 



" The above varieties of slate alternate with strata of the most beautiful descrip- 

 tions of marble and porphyry; in the latter of which are found nodules of jasper, 

 of considerable size, and those strata pass off into micaceous schist, hornblende, 

 corundum, and trap, with a less distinct transition into alum-slate, and secondary 

 limestone. 



"The strata run nearly east and west, and exhibit all the characteristics of the 

 primitive rocks to which they pertain, both in respect of their fracture, dip, and the 

 absence of all vestiges of animal remains ; so far as I have yet been able to exa- 

 mine them, a small portion of these valuable productions lie within the Honorable 

 Company's district of Bajulkota; but nine-tenths, and those of the very finest 

 quality, are in the territories of a number of independent jaghirdars and chief- 

 tains. The natives have no name for slate ; are utterly ignorant of its nature use 

 or the method of quarrying it ; and after a most diligent search in every village 

 where I have traced it, I have not found a bit, so much as an inch square, in 

 any wall, or building, or in any way whatever applied to the purposes of life. 

 I shewed the native shop-keepers, in the presence of a number of people, its value 

 as a writing material, which delighted and astonished them beyond measure ; but 

 from the native chieftains downward to the lowest individual, not one, though 

 living on the very spot, was acquainted with its use or value. The chieftains are 

 anxious that 1 should carry on my researches within their respective limits, as 

 likely to be attended with great advantage to themselves and their people, as 

 well as to the community at large. The finest description of roofing slate is at 

 Lokapur, not in the Company's territory ; but there are scarcely any two villages 

 which have the same kinds of slates — some kinds are good for one, others for 

 another, purpose. The districts in which these slates are found are most coinmo- 

 diously situated within a short distance of the confluence of the Gatparba and 



