160 On the Boksas of Bijnour. [No. 3, 



little in availing themselves of the natural products, which are literally 

 scattered around them. 



But the most important and interesting of the extra-agricul- 

 tural avocations the Boksas ever engage in, is gold-washing, and 

 it deserves a somewhat more extended notice. Within the last 25 

 or 30 years, the first part of the course of the Ganges, outside the 

 Himalaya, furnished gold from its sands, hut at present the Sona 

 naddi in the Patli Doon, and the Bamgunga, below the junction of the 

 former, are the only streams in this neighbourhood, whose sands are 

 regularly or frequently washed. Little is done on the Bamgunga 

 outside the Siwaliks, but there appeared every indication that the 

 gold-washing was a regular employment of the Boksas on the Sona 

 naddi, and there is reason to believe, that the proceeds derived 

 from that minor Eldorado had a good deal to do with the 

 manifest reluctance of these people to leave the Patli Doon, on the 

 occasion of its being shut up for the preservation of the timber. In 

 the aggregate, however, the amount annually collected does not seem 

 to have been very large, for some years ago, the sum paid to Govern- 

 ment by the contractor of the Doon as gold-dues was only 25 rupees 

 yearly. 



The Boksas say that there is nothing in the appearance, of the 

 gold-bearing sand to let them know if it will be productive or not, 

 and only "prospecting" by a trial will shew this. The sand itself is 

 dug from the bed of the stream at many places extending over several 

 miles, and the superficial layer generally contains much less gold than 

 ie of those a few inches below. In the sand, there seems to be a 

 i deal of ferruginous matter, and there are iron-markings along 

 many parts of the borders of the little stream, which here runs down 

 an intra- Siwalik valley similar to, but very much smaller than the 

 Dehra Doon. The soil, in and near the bed of the stream, is mostly 

 gravel, and soft gray sandstone, similar to that of the Siwaliks, 

 frequently crops out. 



Three or four people, often members of one family, work in a gang, 

 each having a separate part of the process assigned to him. A shovelful 

 of the sand is first put upon a little close-set bamboo screen or sieve, 

 placed over the upper hinder pait of a flat ifoon-wood cradle (sand), 

 ili< lower end of which is open, and which has handles by which its 



