INTRODUCTION 



53 



2,-- Some Auriferous localities in North Coxm- 

 batore, by H. H. Hayden, B.A.,B.E., F.G.S., Officiat- 

 ing Deputy Superintendent^ Geological Survey of India, 

 (With Plates VIII and IX.) 



The above localities lie in the Satyamangalam and KoIIegdl taluks 

 of Coimbatore district, in the broken country lying to the east of the 

 road from Haussanur to KollegdI. Although quartz reefs were 

 known to exist in certain parts of this area and were examined by 

 Messrs. Middlemiss and Smith, of this department, in the course of 

 their geological survey of the area, it is only within the last few 

 years that detailed search has been made for old native workings. 

 The discovery of the majority of these is due to tl e energy of 

 Mr. Randolph Morris, of Attika"n Estate, who has spent much time 

 in searching for them, and to whom I am greatly indebted for the 

 valuable assistance rendered me by him during my examination of the 

 localities in question. 



Unfortunately little prospecting has been done in this area, 

 ,. „ the presence of the old workings being con* 



Little prospecting r & & 



hitherto done. sidered sufficient evidence of the auriferous 



character of the quartz reefs, and I found therefore that there was no 

 possibility of thoroughly sampling the reefs, for the old native work- 

 ings, instead of being of assistance, are in reality an impediment, in 

 that the outcrops of the reefs have been almost completely broken 

 away and the whole neighbourhood of the lodes covered over and 

 obscured by debris. The workings themselves consist, as a rule, 

 merely of depressions in the surface or of mounds of broken material, 

 all old shafts which may have formerly existed being now completely 

 filled in and obliterated, and only by finding such shafts and 

 clearing them out, as has been done in a few cases, or else by sinking 

 new prospecting shafts and making cross-cuts, would it be possible 

 to obtain satisfactory samples. It is indeed not unusual to find that 

 old workings are considered by many prospectors as a proof of the 



C 53 ) 



