1S50.] Specimen of Iron from the Dhunakar hills. 77 



The following are the analysis of the matrix and of a perfect ball 

 from it. 



Ball. Matrix coal. 



Sp. gravity, 1.32 1.34 



Gaseous matter, 24.00 28.00 



Carbon, 68.75 59.60 



Ash, 7.25 12.40 



100.00 100.00 



It would thus appear that the purest parts of the coal, i. e. those 

 containing the least proportion of earthy and metallic matters, are thos e 

 most liable to affect the globular form and this explains, in one way at 

 least, the occurrence of the small bright balls close to those ten times 

 their size, for we may suppose them to have been originally the remains 

 of some vegetable with less earthy matter in their composition. I 

 shall send home a good supply of specimens, and I trust we shall 

 thence obtain some good microscopic examinations of it. 



Note presented by H. Torrens, Esq., C. S., Resident, Moorshedahad, 

 with a specimen of Iron from the Dhunakar hills, Birbhum. 



This specimen of the iron smelted by the Sontals of Birbhiim, was 

 procured by Dr. Robert Young near a place called Bullia-narainpur 

 below the Dhunakar hills about thirty miles, as the crow flies from 

 Moorshedabad. The country is described as covered with an inter- 

 minable Saul forest, of which the larger trees appeared to average about 

 two feet diameter. The small shafts sunk throughout the country by 

 the Sontals for "iron earth," as they call it, are astonishingly numerous. 

 The forest furnishes them with excellent charcoal, and they are singu- 

 larly careful to cut the timber for it in regular patches of about a 

 big ah in extent, driving the shaft of their little mine often between 



