1843.] Mineral Resources of India. 543 



vested in the sovereign authority, the zemindars only claiming pro- 

 perty in the ore by right of consideration paid into the treasury. 

 Further, the right to the mineral products of the land was distinctly 

 separated from the right of cultivation on the surface. 



In 1774 a proposal was submitted by Indernarain Sermono to the 

 Burdwan Council, and by them to the Presidency one. The correspon- 

 dence is as follows : — 



The Burdwan Council to Government. 



* * We transmit you copy of a proposal, which has been delivered to us 

 by Indernarain Sermono, for clearing away the jungle, and manufacturing 

 iron in a mountainous part of the district of Beerbhoom, together with the 

 sketch which accompanies it of the tract of country, for the lease of which 

 he has applied. We beg leave to submit it to your consideration, and 

 have only to observe, that by an inspection of the Mofussil accounts, none 

 of the places mentioned within the boundary he has described, appear 

 in the jumma of 1178, and that from the inquiries we have made, we 

 believe that tract of country to be in the unfruitful condition described 

 by him. — \9th September, 1774. 



Indernarain Surma's Proposals. 



In the province of Beerbhoom, there is a considerable tract of mountain- 

 ous country overrun with jungles, and which, in its present uncultivated 

 state, serves no other purpose than that of a harbour of Choars, who live 

 upon plundering the inhabitants of the cultivated lands. Within this 

 space, there was formerly a village called Hatgatchya, situated about a 

 coss south of a hill called Monsa Pahr (both in the Pergunna of 

 Mallarpore). At first this village was much injured in 1174 and 1175 

 by the depredations of the Choars ; and in the year of the famine, the whole 

 of its inhabitants deserted the country around the village. On the north 

 side three coss, on the west three coss, on the south three-quarter of a coss, 

 and on the east two coss is an entire jungle, and yields no revenue. Ac- 

 companying is a sketch of it. This tract of country, in many parts of 

 which iron ore is to be found, I request the lease of, on the following 

 terms : — 



The lease is to be granted to me for 7 or 10 years; for the first year, 

 on account of the great expense which I shall incur by cutting the jungle 



