938 Report on the Copper mines of Kurnaon. [Nov. 



(wedges) be substituted instead of the inefficient tools in use, and when 

 blasting may be required the necessary materials should be provided. 

 On the other hand, where timber may be requisite, sawn wood should 

 be used to render the passages permanent and secure, in place of the 

 branches of trees now employed for that purpose ; and I judge from 

 experience, that a man accustomed to work under these improved cir- 

 cumstances will excavate and extend a large and commodious passage 

 in a less time by one-third, than that occupied for the same distance 

 in excavating the miserable holes under the native mode of working. 



2. * The conveying the ores and refuse from the mine. — This is 

 performed by boys, who pick up the stuff with their hands, and put it 

 into skins, which they drag along the floor to the entrance of the mine. 

 In place of this method, wheel-barrows and shovels should be used, 

 when the passages are enlarged ; and a boy might then easily discharge 



four times as much as he can at present. 



3. " The pulverizing of the ores. — 'This is performed by women ; 

 a large hard stone being placed on the ground on which they lay the 

 ores ; they then either with a stone, or hammer, more frequently the 

 former, proceed to pulverize them and to pick out the impurities : in 

 this manner a woman may manage from one to two maunds per day, 

 according to the hardness of the ores. In Cornwall, a woman will pul- 

 verize from 10 to 15 hundredweight per day, according, as in the 

 former case, to the nature of the ores. The method in practice there 

 is, first to dispense with the picking : — secondly, to have the ores 

 elevated, so as to enable the individual to stand while working, and 

 to have a plate of iron about a foot square and two inches thick on 

 which the ores are broken with a broad flat hammer : the impurities are 

 then finally separated by a peculiar mode of dressing the ores with a 

 sieve, by which a boy gets through with from one and a half to two 

 tons per day. The ores are conveyed to the women, and from them to 

 the boys by a man who attends for that purpose. 



4. " The washing and cleansing of the poorer ores from slime and 

 other impurities. — This also is performed by women, who carry the 

 stuff from the entrance of the mine to a stream in baskets, where they 

 contrive, by dabbling with their hands, to wash off the mud and finer 

 particles of earth. They then proceed to pick out all the pieces of ore 

 they can get hold of; or in the case of what may be submitted to the 

 water in a comminuted state, they work this against the stream, so as 

 to gather it clean at the head of a small pit by handfulls ; but, from the 

 bad construction of the pits, it is with difficulty that this is performed. 

 After picking up any larger pieces of ore, which may have gone back 



