756 Memorandum on the Iron Works of Beerbhoom. [No. 166. 



nearer the place where the works are now carried on ; the only lime 

 procurable is made from the common kunkur. 



The circumstance of a monopoly of the iron manufacture existing 

 in Zillah Beerbhoom is curious ; I spoke to the agent of the monopolist 

 on the subject ; it seems he claims and exercises the monopoly 

 throughout what was formerly the Zemindaree of the Rajah of Beer, 

 bhoom, which is by far the greater portion of the whole Zillah ; the 

 Rajah no longer holds the Zemindaree, which has been divided and 

 sold ; the monopoly is said to have been purchased at a revenue sale, 

 and to have been acknowledged by a decision of the Sudder Court. 

 I was enquiring more carefully into this subject, but was obliged 

 suddenly to leave the district ; I am much inclined to doubt the right 

 claimed, but have not yet seen the documents on which it is grounded. 

 I cannot conceive how such a right can have originated. 



Welby Jackson. 



Account of certain Agate Splinters found in the clay stratum border- 

 ing the river Narbudda, with specimens accompanying. By Capt. 

 J. Abbott, late Assistant in Nimaur. 



My dear Sir. — May I claim the favor of your attention to a sin- 

 gular phenomenon exhibited by the clay and kunkur strata, bordering 

 the river Narbudda. 



2 The valley of this river in Nimaur is a basin of black trap 

 rock, perforated occasionally by peaks of granite. Upon the trap, is usu- 

 ally found a bed of clay twenty feet in depth, rendered barren by an 

 admixture of sand and lime. Upon this bed is imposed black or an 

 iron- brown soil, from half a foot to three feet in depth, composed 

 almost exclusively of the debris of decayed, and the charcoal of burnt 

 vegetation. Masses of trap (occasionally basaltic) break through these 

 strata, and large hollow nodules of quartz filled with white or with 

 amethystine crystals are found scattered over the surface ; but more com- 

 monly in those portions of the valley which owing to superior height 

 or other peculiarities, have no covering of clay nor of vegetable soil. 



3. Along the Narbudda's brink, the black soil has been generally 

 abraded by the torrents, leaving barren ravines of clay and kunkur, 



