GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 51 



washed from the waste heaps. The experiment almost certainly, 

 therefore, produced a result less favourable than would be obtained 

 by proper organization in regular practice. As it was, the material so 

 obtained was found to contain, on careful chemical analysis, 76 per 

 cent, of phosphate of lime, or 82'5 per cent, of apatite, an amount which 

 certainly more than repays the cost of labour, and would probably 

 leave a decided margin after meeting the cost of royalty, packing and 

 freight to Calcutta. The industry must always be a small one, and the 

 mineral does not occur in sufficient abundance to warrant mining for 

 it alone ; but at present it is thrown away with the waste, and might 

 very well be turned to some account as an addition, however small, to 

 the returns of a mine which is worked primarily for mica. 



Another occurrence of phosphate, interesting because of its rarity 

 elsewhere but probably of small value as a source of phosphoric acid, 

 was noticed to occur as considerable masses of tnplite near the re- 

 markable mica mine, 2 miles south-east of the village of Singar 

 (24 35 ; 85 35' ) in the Gaya district. The mineral is a phosphate 

 and fluoride of iron and manganese, containing about 32 per cent, of 

 phosphoric acid. The locality from which the triplite was obtained 

 also yielded small specimens of the more valuable mineral uraninite 

 (pitchblende), associated with uraniu?n-ochre and the beautiful 

 torbemite, a phosphate of uranium and copper. 



Amongst other minerals of casual value or interest might be men- 

 tioned the leucopyrite, an arsenide of iron, occasionally found in lumps 

 several pounds in weight in the mica-bearing pegmatites, near Dabur, 

 south of Gawan on the Sakri river, and again one mile south-south- 

 west of Dhab ; transparent, green tourmaline, sometimes suitable, for 

 optical uses, near Manimundar (24 37'; 85 52') where it is associated 

 with the blue variety, itidicoltte, and lepidoliie ; and columbite, 

 the tantalate and niobate of iron and manganese, found in large 

 quantities in a mine 4 miles south of Nawadih (Jha-Jha) in the 

 Monghyr district. If there was any market for a porcelain industry, 

 an abundance of clean felspar, now rejected, would be available in any 

 part of the mica belt; but kaolin does not occur iu any abundance. 



C 41 ) 



