216 Report on the Geology, Zoology, #c. [No. 135. 



visit two cutcha maunds, (64 ib,) to the godown, distant about half mile, 

 and each individual removes from twelve to fourteen loads per diem. 

 The salt is carried in conical- shaped baskets, the summit of the cone 

 being downwards, so that when depositing it, all they do, is to bend 

 the body forward, and allow it to tumble over their heads. Altogether 

 engaged with the mines, there were 250 individuals, 200 of whom 

 receive four rupees per mensem ; the remaining fifty from rupees five to 

 rupees fifteen, which brings up the expense of working the mines to 

 rupees 2,000 per mensem. The sum drawn varies from 3 to 5,000, 

 and the average per annum from rupees 35 to 60,000. The salt 

 is sold at the rate of two maunds = ife 160 the rupee. A Paharee 

 carries to Mundi, which is about twelve miles distant, 26 seers, 

 52 ife, for which he receives two annas, or a third of its value. One 

 half of the men are engaged at the mines, the other in exporting the 

 salt to Mundi, Belaspore, &c. ; but as its quality is so very inferior, 

 but little is exported to the plains. It is occasionally brought down 

 to Moubarickpore through Simla. There is another salt mine about 

 fourteen coss to the northward, it yields, however, but a small quantity ; 

 viz. fifty maunds. Those of Durung yielding 300 maunds per diem. 



In the cold weather, the miner works from 8 a. m. to 4 p. m., but 

 in the morning they complain much of the cold, their only covering 

 being a dirty piece of cotton cloth, similar to that worn by the miners 

 in the Punjaub mines. Nearly the whole of the inhabitants of Durung 

 are engaged in the mines,* a few only cultivating the fields around. f 



* By mistake the name of Vingul has been applied in some maps to the mines ; 

 the village of that name is about three coss off. 



t To health, the employment of the miner here is equally injurious as at Jutaneh, &c, 

 and the causes why it is so, opens up a wide field of investigation. Prior to the Niger 

 Expedition leaving England , the subject of malaria attracted much attention . Dr. Daniel 

 in a lecture delivered to the Royal Institution maintained, that the dreaded malaria, as 

 also the deadly stinking miasma of Africa, producing languor, nausea, disgust, and 

 death, is owing to sulphuretted hydrogen. The jungle fever of India, is also ascribed 

 to the same cause. On the Coast of Africa, the presence of the sulphuretted hydro- 

 gen is owing to the action and reaction of the vegetable matter carried down by the 

 tropical rivers, and the sulphates always more or less present in the sea water. This, 

 he proves to be the case experimentally. It is well known that the soils of the jun- 

 gles of India abound with sulphates of soda and magnesia, must not therefore, he 

 says, quantities of sulphuretted hydrogen be generated? Can science indicate a reme- 

 dy for this evil 1 This the Professor answers in the affirmative ; viz ; fumigation with 

 chlorine, by which a chemical action is instantly produced. Sulphur being thrown 



