4o6 Copper Mines of Pokree, fyc. [No. 138. 



tain. It is, however, impossible to ascertain with accuracy the amount 

 of revenue yielded from the Pokree mines, under the Hindoo or 

 Ghoorkha* rulers. In the absence of authentic records, tradition has 

 stepped in, and the result is, as usual, gross exaggeration and hyperbole. 

 The older miners of the place, some of whom are still extant, assert, 

 that one of the mines one year yielded 50,000 Rupees profit. How 

 much of this account is true I have no means of ascertaining, but this 

 much is certain, that from the time of the Ghoorkha conquest of Ghur- 

 wal, (1803,) up to the year 1838, the produce of the Pokree mines had 

 become more and more scanty, and that when, (towards the close of 

 the above year,) these mines were handed over to Mr. Wilkin, the ac- 

 tual revenue at which they were rated in the public accounts amounted 

 to 100 rupees per annum, and this small sum was eventually re- 

 mitted for that year, owing to the poverty and utter inability of the 

 farmer to pay the Government demand. 



Mr. Wilkin commenced operations in December 1838, and from 

 that month to the end of June 1841, the works were carried on under 

 his constant superintendence, with more or less vigor.f The progress 

 made in excavating the adits, varied at different seasons. It appears 

 to have been smallest during the rains, when frequent " break-downs" 

 took place in the mines, and at other seasons the hardness of the 

 ground and scarcity of workmen prevented much progress being made. 

 The total amount of work, according to the returns sent in by the 

 assistant, and expenditure incurred in making them is, as follows : — 



* In Mr. Traill's Account of Kumaon, (Asiatic Researches,) I find 4801 Rupees only 

 given as the Jumma fixed by the Ghoorkha Government of 1812, for the whole province 

 of Kumaon and Ghurwal, under the head of "mines and mint duties." The Ghoorkha 

 rupee was worth about 12 annas, so that in Company's Rupees the sum was only 3600 

 Rupees. This, however, was merely the Government revenue accounted for by the 

 Nepalese Soobahs to the Katmandhoo Government, what else may have been levied 

 from the former, under the heads of Bhent, Nuzerana, &c. &c. I cannot pretend to say. 

 From the year 1815, (conquest of Kumaon) the revenue derived by the British Go- 

 vernment from mines has averaged as follows : — 



Kemaon Proper. Ghurwal. 



Copper, .... Rs. 12,00 to Rs. 801, Rs. 2,086. Highest mining revenue of 



Iron, , 1,905 .. , „ 226. the province, Rupees 5,417. 



f The workings were carried on night and day, the laborers being formed into 

 gangs, and relieved at fixed hours. Tools were supplied from the magazines, whilst 

 others were made up by Mr. Wilkin's smiths and carpenters; the whole of these ex- 

 penses are included in the abstract, except the value of the magazine tools, and one or 

 two barrels of gunpowder expended in blasting. 



