1838.] Report en the Copper mines of Kumaon. 937 



sect another lode, running in a northwest and southeasterly direction, 

 which is poor at this particular locality. The former lode resembles the 

 ore at Rye, but the ore is harder and more contaminated with iron 

 pyrites. 



The adit is also continued south from the strike of this lode a few feet, 

 when it enters a confused mass of timbering and stones, having the 

 appearance as if ore had been excavated in every direction ; it then runs 

 15° west of south, and is about 10 fathoms in length. At the end of 

 this passage, a pit is sunk (said to be 35 feet deep) on a lode 

 running 5° north of west. When I penetrated to the spot, it was half 

 full of water, which six men were constantly employed in lifting up 

 in small buckets, to prevent the flooding of the working part of the 

 mine, with which there is a communication, as is evident from the 

 currents of water and air that come from that quarter. 



The teekadar reports the lode at the bottom of the pit to be very 

 rich, but complains of deficiency of hands to work it. Should the passage 

 of the mine be enlarged, men of a different caste from the miners might 

 be employed to draw off the water, and the whole of the miners set to 

 work at the ores. There is no want of ventilation, as the air is constant- 

 ly circulating from the works to the pit, and from thence to the strike 

 of the first lode, not far from which are two holes brought down from 

 an old adit, formerly the drainage of the mine. The appearance of this 

 mine warrants the repairing and enlarging of the adit, which is the first 

 thing to be done : more satisfactory data will then be obtained as to the 

 character and number of the lodes, than can be hoped for in its present 

 wretched state : the bringing in of a new adit may then be taken into 

 consideration. 



I shall now offer a few practical observations by my mining assistant, 

 contrasting the modes of working here with what he has been accustomed 

 to witness in Cornwall. 



1. " The mode of excavation. — This is performed with a very indif- 

 ferent kind of pick-axe ; the handle being made of a piece of wood with a 

 knob at one end, into which a piece of hard iron is thrust and sharpened 

 at the point. This, with a miserable iron hammer, wedge and crowbar^ 

 constitutes all the apparatus that the native miner has to depend upon. 

 It is plain that with such tools no hard rocks can be penetrated, 

 nor can the softer ones be worked with much facility ; and to this fact 

 may be attributed the universal smallness of the passages throughout the 

 mines ; as the native miner can have his passage no larger, than the 

 rock which encloses the ore and its matrix will admit of. 



"I would, therefore suggest that proper pickaxes and steel gads 

 6 b 2 



