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



owing to the abundance of water, and softness of the talc; but it is 

 said to have a good lode in one part of it, the lode then crosses the 

 hill near Deothan, a small village above the mine, and is found near 

 Googlee and Reswarra, where I have seen ores extracted from it; 

 but I do not think it likely to be profitable on that side of the hill. 

 " The Raja's mine is situated about 450 yards north of the Chow- 

 Raja's Mine. muttee mine in common dolomite, which rests on 

 talcose schist. It seems to have been discovered by the out-crop of 

 copper in the precipice above the Pokree village, and to have been 

 followed down to a depth of JO fathoms, at which level an adit 

 was brought into the mine, which must have been driven 100 fa- 

 thoms through dead ground, («. e. in which no ores are found,^ ere 

 it reached the copper formation ; how far it had been driven beyond 

 that cannot, be ascertained, but the old miners state it to be a consi- 

 derable length. There are other adits, by which the mine was 

 worked previous to the bringing in of the deep adit, and the next one 

 above it is said to have been the principal entrance by which the 

 ores were brought out. At the time when the adits fell together, 

 which occurred about 60 years ago, there were three places in which 

 ores were found : namely, the Gaja Chauk, Kumera Chauk, and the 

 Burtwal Kooa ; the Gaja Chauk was entered at the level of the 

 deep adit, and worked on so large a scale, as to require timber 20 

 feet long to support the roof, and finally it became so large, that the 

 miners contented themselves with picking up, at the risk of their 

 lives, the ores that fell down from the roof, until it all fell in toge- 

 ther. The Burtwal Kooa was probably on the same lode as the 

 Gaja Chauk, under the level of the adit. The Kumera Chauk was 

 probably on another lode, (Kumera being the name for talc,) the 

 ores of that lode being muddy and requiring to be washed. The pro- 

 duce of the mine at the utmost is said to have been 300 seers of ores, 

 worth 25 per cent, of copper per day, of which the Raja claimed two- 

 thirds, and the remainder was shared by the laborers, who also held 

 land free of rent. This was the best mine in the province, and the 

 old inhabitants of Pokree always spoke of it as a place of great 

 riches. The adit was allowed to fall together during a dispute be- 

 tween Raja Sackrit and his brothers, and though an attempt was af- 

 terwards made to open a new adit near the old one, it was never 



