.1840.] Journal of a trip through Kunawur, §*c. 577 



position. At last a deep chasm, which had once been the bed of 

 a snow stream from above, for a while arrested our progress, until 

 we had cut holes or notches for our feet. This was done by the guide, 

 who standing first on one leg and then on the other, cut or scraped 

 with the end of a stick the holes as he advanced, all the while 

 balancing himself over a precipice, into which, had his footing given 

 way, he must have been hurled and dashed to atoms. He, however, 

 was perfectly at his ease, for having formed the stepping places, he 

 turned his back upon the precipice as with the greatest unconcern he 

 tendered his hand to steady me over the yawning gulph. It was a 

 place that I would gladly have returned from, but having insisted 

 upon coming, and taunted the people for their hesitation, pride forebade 

 my return. With a beating heart, and somewhat unsteady step, I ac- 

 cepted the proffered aid, and succeeded in crossing. 



Two such gaps in the hill side were passed before we reached the 

 abandoned mines, which after all were holes scraped in the rock to 

 the depth of eight or ten feet, and which were now filled up by the 

 splitting of the stones, and the quantity of rubbish brought down by 

 the frost and snows of winter. 



Here I picked up a few weathered specimens of the ore, which I 

 thought a very poor remuneration for the toil I had undergone. 



If the path was difficult of ascension, it will be readily conjectured 

 that it was twice as much so to descend again ; by dint of sometimes 

 descending step by step backwards, and at others almost sitting down 

 to it, down we got in safety, after ascending and descending a height 

 of three thousand feet, and after a walk of seven miles from Soongnum. 



The copper occurs in veins of white quartz, running parallel to the 

 strata of greywacke, and old red sandstone, which are here the chief 

 formations. It is worked by a few miners from Rampore, who are 

 just enabled to earn a livelihood by the sale of the ore. A small duty 

 paid in copper is taken by the Rajah of Bussaher, who is said to have 

 worked the mines on his own account as a trial for one year, but the 

 small quantity obtained, the distance of carriage, and the impossibili- 

 ty of working more than six months in the year, induced him to aban- 

 don the undertaking. The present miner resides in the forest near 

 the different mines, or more properly excavations, during five or six 

 months, and sells the produce of his labours at Soongnum. 



