454 Copper Mines of Pokree, §c. [No. 138. 



Account of the experiment carried on at the Pokree Copper Mine, 



Ghurwal, under Mr. fVilkin, with notices of other Copper Mines 



in that district. 



In the 83d Number of the Journal of the Asiatic Society, is an 

 account, by Captain H. Drummond of the 3rd Light Cavalry, of some 

 of the Kumaon copper mines visited by him ; this account was drawn 

 up agreeably to the orders of the Governor General of India, and 

 extracts from it were published for general information. In this report 

 Captain Drummond suggested, that with a view of obtaining more 

 correct details than were then forthcoming, as to the advantages or 

 otherwise, of working any one of the Kumaon or Ghurwal copper 

 mines under European superintendence, a certain sum should be ad- 

 vanced by Government for an experimental opening of such mine as 

 might appear best suited to the object in view. This proposition 

 received the sanction of Government in November* 1838, the sum of 

 Rupees 2415 was allotted from the public treasury, being the amount 

 of an estimate submitted by Captain Drummond, and the charge of 

 the experiment was assigned to Mr. Wilkin, an intelligent and res- 

 pectable Cornish mining assistant, who had accompanied Captain 

 Drummond from England. Mr. Wilkin's personal salary was at 

 the same time fixed at 150 rupees per mensem, by orders of the 

 Governor General. 



The mine selected, agreeably to Captain Drummond's and Mr. 



Pokree Mine selec- Wilkin's opinion as the scene of operations, is situ- 



ted as the scene of , . .,, . _ . . _, 



operations. ated near the village of Pokree, pergunnah Nagpoor, 



Ghurwal, and is generally known by the name of the Pokree mine. 

 The village of Pokree, is distant from Almorah about eighty miles 

 (say seven marches) North, and about seven or eight miles; on the 

 right, or Northern bank of the Aluknundah river ; from Sreenuggur 

 it is about fifty miles, or from four to five days' journey for a loaded 

 man. The elevation of the Deothal temple, or as it is commonly 

 called Deothan, above the village of Pokree, is given by Captain Webb 

 at 6,288 feet ; the village is, I think, about five to six hundred feet 

 lower, and the mines in its vicinity range from the latter to the former 

 altitude. 



* Letter from the Secretary to Government to the Commissioner of Kumaon, dated 

 26th November, 1838. 



