14 Notes of a tour in the Tributary Melials. [No. 1, 



stratum of vegetable mould and the red soil beneath it, and come 

 to a layer of pebbles and fragments, chiefly of quartz, forming a 

 dirty damp gravel ; this they remove and wash. I have watched 

 their operations close along the banks of the river, and at some 

 miles distant from the stream, and the process and result was much 

 the same in both places. Near the river, five pits or shafts had been 

 recently sunk by as many families of Jhorahs, for they work in 

 families, women and children assisting. They had one washing trough, 

 called a ' doom, ' to each family, and the washing commenced in my presence. 

 The stuff selected is either of a dirty drab or of a reddish colour, with 

 occasional small white spots, little balls of particles of decomposed 

 felspar, adhering together from moisture, and drying into powder. 

 The Jhorahs regard these white spots as the surest indication that the 

 gravel contains gold. The stratum of gravel which they were working 

 on this occasion was not more than a foot in depth. It rests on 

 decomposed granite, which crumbles when taken in the hand, and the 

 gold-washers assured me that this contained no gold, but I insisted on 

 having some of it washed, and found their statement not strictly cor- 

 rect. It contains gold, but is less rich in the mineral than the gravel 

 above. When the gravel immediately under the shaft is all removed, 

 they scoop out from the sides all round, as far as they dare venture to 

 penetrate laterally, and in this way sometimes connect the shafts, but 

 they take no precautions, and sometimes, going too far, have to be dug 

 out, not always alive ! There appear to have been several accidents of 

 the land, but with all this danger and labour, the pursuit does not 

 return sufficient to support them, and they are farmers as well as gold- 

 washers. 



They are greedy and reckless in taking advances, trusting much, no 

 doubt, to the facilities their remote situation gives them, of evading 

 payment, and some of them are enormously in debt. One man was 

 pointed out to me as owing Rs. 1000 ! He grinned as the sum was 

 mentioned, as if exulting over his victim. The greed for gold and the 

 gambling nature of the pursuit is surely a great corrupter of human 

 nature, for in the midst of a population generally remarkable for 

 honesty, truthfulness and simplicity, these gold- washers are menda- 

 cious and unscrupulous rogues. 



Some years ago, a trader came amongst them whilst they were at 



