1839.] On the Experimental Copper Mine in Kumaon. 471 



Art. II. — Report by Lieut. John Glasfurd, Executive Engineer 

 Kumaon division, on the progress made up to the 1st May, 1839, in 

 opening the experimental Copper Mine in Kumaon. 



The ground selected for the experiment is at Pokri in the Per- 

 gunnah of Nagpoor in Gurhwal, where mines of Copper have long 

 been worked. 



The mines, or rather excavations, are numerous, and are situated on 

 the western side of a steep hill in talcose schist and clay slate. The 

 soil is extremely soft and decayed, and has defied all the efforts of the 

 present race of native miners, according to whose accounts the workings 

 do not extend beyond 120 feet from the entrance in any of the excava- 

 tions, which are constantly liable to accidents, and of which a new one 

 is generally commenced after every rainy season. It is however univer- 

 sally admitted that the Pokri mines have been very productive, and it 

 is said that the one known by the name of the Rajah Kan, yielded one 

 year upwards of 50,000 rupees. Judging from the ruins of the houses, 

 workshops, &c, and the accumulation of slag, the working must have 

 been carried on, on an extensive scale. 



The village of Pokri is situated about 6, 1 00 feet above the level of 

 the sea, and 3,800 above the Alukmenda river, from which it is distant 

 nearly nine miles ; the distance from Almora is eighty-six, and from 

 Sreenuggur little more than thirty miles, and to both of these places 

 there are good roads. The climate is good but changeable, owing to the 

 vicinity of the Snowy range ; and the temperature is from the same 

 cause as cold as that generally found at elevations from 7,000 to 7,500 

 feet. The vegetation, as might be expected, is European in its character, 

 and the forests of oak, rhododendron, and the common long-leaved 

 pine are almost inexhaustible in the immediate neighbourhood of the 

 mines. During the greater part of the year there is water sufficient 

 for washing the ores in the immediate vicinity, and at a distance of 

 about two miles, there is enough for the purposes of machinery through- 

 out the year. The village consists of eighteen to twenty-two houses, 

 and from sixty to eighty inhabitants, who are chiefly of the Chowdry 

 and Mining castes. The right of mining was rented by them from Go- 

 vernment on a quinquennial lease of 100 rupees per annum, which 

 expired about a year ago ; but the people are so poor, and their resources 

 so limited, that they have been unable to undertake any new lease, and 

 indeed before the present experiment was commenced they hardly at- 

 tempted more than the re-smelting portions of the slag from the old 

 working. 



