46S Account of the Golden Ore found [Sept. 



perous years, when the gods favoured the zillah of Cargiiry with an ample 

 harvest, now and then grains of gold were found in the ears of the pad- 

 dy which grows under the tank laying close north of that village." 



I treated this at the time as a fabrication, and took no farther notice 

 of it. But now that my mind was taken up with inquiries of that 

 nature, on my return to Cargiiry, I began to conceive that there might 

 be more truth in the story than I at first had imagined ; as it was by 

 no means impossible that the banks of the Poni-aur might be 

 equally impregnated with golden ore as those of the Pal-aur, its sister 

 river, and that the plant cultivated in its vicinity might very well in 

 that case carry up now and then a grain of gold in its growth. I ac- 

 cordingly resolved on trying the stratum on the banks of the Poni-aur 

 near Cargiiry ; but the natives at that place being totally ignorant of 

 the method of washing the earth, and having no utensils with me for 

 that purpose, I was reduced to collect a certain number of loads from 

 various places at random, and to take them along with me until I could 

 procure gold searchers to examine their contents. 



On my arrival at Daseracottapilly*, (22nd,) I soon procured people 

 from Wurigamto attend me, and by my experiments obtained three 

 sparkles of gold from a load collected on the banks of an anicut or 

 dam, which crosses the Poni-aur opposite to Cargury : so that al- 

 though the other specimen yielded nothing but iron, this instance alone 

 was sufficient to establish that the Poni-aur, as well as the Pal-aur, 

 rolled gold dust in its stream. 



The next object for consideration was, at which place these two ri- 

 vers so near to their source could have collected this ore : this I thought 

 was a question which came home to myself, as having surveyed them to 

 a considerable distance towards the hills from which they flow, I ought 

 to know best the different tracts over which they went. It then oc- 

 curred to me that the gold which I had formerly collected near Wiiri- 

 gam and Marciipam was generally found near certain small hills, con- 

 sisting of deep red clay, mostly flat at the top, and covered with that 

 sort of hard metallic stone which in Bengal is called kankar, forming 

 a hard crust, appearing as it were a cover to the hill. 



Now, with regard to the Poni-aur, I recollected that there were three 

 small hills of this description! about half a mile S. W. of Cargiiry, 

 which in the rainy season supply water to the tank which lays north 

 of it, and that this river passed pretty near a long range of this kind 



* This village is on the road from Bangalore to the Carnatic by Malure, distant 

 forty -nine miles east of Bangalore, and ten miles west of Battamangalam. 

 •J- Pattendore Hills. 



