1864.] 



The Mines of Khetree of Bajpootana. 



521 



this occasion, upwards of a month had been expended in this primitive 

 and inefficient process, and the cost was about 200 Rupees. To clear 

 the whole mine properly would require about Us. 2,000, which is a 

 sum, those employed in the trade could ill-afford to lay out. 



The richest mines in Khetree are lying useless from being thus 

 choked. There is one especially, the ore from which the miners con- 

 fidently affirm contains 75 per cent, of pure metal. It is situated near 

 a running stream, and various traders have expended large sums to 

 clear this mine, but hitherto without result. 



At Baghore, a fortified hill about 200 feet higher than Khetree, 

 are other mines of copper intermixed with cobalt, the latter alternating 

 in thin layers with the copper. 



The copper mines are owned by the miners themselves, whose ances- 

 tors discovered them in former times. The larger are managed by a 

 punchayet, on behalf of the mining community, who are descended 

 from the ancient discoverers. Some of the smaller mines are owned by 

 traders, who have bought them up, either from the original discoverers, 

 or else gradually from their descendants, as these have become in- 

 volved in difficulties, and have pawned or made over their shares to the 

 traders ; who pander, for their own interests, to the unthriftiness for 

 which all such men are noted. The larger mines do not appear to 

 have shared this fate. 



Each year, after the rainy season the various branches of each 

 mine are put up to " auction" by the punchayet. The Koolhdn mine 

 has six or seven branches. The miners themselves are the bidders. 

 Each branch of the Koolhan mine sells for from Us. 50 to 100 a year, 

 and the whole mine fetches from Rs. 400 to Rs. 600, which is a small 

 sum, considering the rich treasures existing in it. 



Each branch of the mine is jealously watched by the miner who 

 purchases it, and who hires other miners as laborers on two annas per 

 diem. Were the mine not guarded, these laborers might purloin the 

 ore and sell it. 



The miners work in gangs, and a party of eight men, starting in the 

 morning at about 8 o'clock, will bring back from 2J to 3 maunds of 

 ore by the evening. The ore is brought in small baskets, weighing 

 about 61bs. each, and is then put up to auction, in the same manner 

 as is done with the ore obtained from the mines still in the hands of 

 the original proprietors, or the traders. The auction takes place at 



3 x 



