1839.] On the Experimental Copper Mine in Kumaon. 473 



through firm talc slate in which copper ores, in trickling strings, and 

 also disseminated, were found. The ores were of various kinds, but 

 vitreous copper ore predominated. From these twenty-four feet fifty - 

 eight or sixty seers of rich ores, worth about twenty per cent, of 

 copper were obtained, one-half of which reverted to the miners, ac- 

 cording to previous agreement, also a quantity of stuff supposed to con- 

 tain about forty maunds, which would probably produce twelve to 

 fifteen per cent, of copper. The last six feet of the gallery passed 

 through another old working exactly similar to the former, and which 

 also appears to have gone down obliquely. A perpendicular shaft has 

 been commenced 150 feet from the entrance of the gallery, for the pur- 

 pose of ventilation ; it has been sunk to a depth of thirty feet, and it is 

 expected that by the time this shaft has attained the requisite depth, 

 the gallery will have advanced far enough to join it. The dimensions 

 of shaft are 6X3, the frames are of oak, and the sheeting fir; the first 

 three feet were through alluvial deposit, the next ten through talc slate, 

 and the next five through what appears to have been an horizontal adit 

 filled with deal timber and blue talcose mud, ten pounds of which on 

 being washed, left four ounces of ore, worth probably ten per cent. 

 The remaining twelve feet went through alternate talc and dolomite, 

 or rather having talc on the north side and dolomite on the south. 

 The water oozing from the old working has much impeded the shaft, 

 the quantity discharged by wooden buckets averaging daily about 500 

 gallons. 



The supply of iron required for the works is obtained from the 

 mines of that metal in the Khutsaree valley,. about forty miles from 

 Pokri, on the road to Almora. In this valley there are large reposi- 

 tories of compact red iron ore in clay slate, containing beds of lime- 

 stone. The manufacture of iron is carried on here more extensively 

 than at any other place in the province, and the metal produced is con- 

 sidered superior to any other here manufactured. There is no want of 

 iron ore in the district, and it exists in many places nearer to the Pokri 

 mine than Khutsaree. At Dewalgurh, half way between Pokri and 

 Sreenuggur, good iron is worked, and about two miles south of 

 the village of Pokri there is an old deserted mine, the specimens from 

 which are specular iron ore, which might probably be worked with ad- 

 vantage. 



The present race of native miners have been at Pokri for three 

 generations, and have no recollection or tradition of fir timber having 

 been used in the mines ; and until it was found on the old workings, 

 they strongly protested against the use of it. The timber found in the 

 Chumittee gallery appears to have been put together with considerable 



