APPENDIX. 157 



whence the best material is obtained is situated on the east of 

 the Cauvery river, at a place about 3 miles from the village of 

 Sholasiramani (Sholasiramani, or Sholasigamani), 70 lieues (174 

 miles) west-south-west of Pondicherry. Leschenault collected 

 some fine specimens of red, rose-coloured and greenish corun- 

 dum in its matrix. The gneissose rock in which the corundum 

 occurs is 10 or 12 feet below the soil ; the ground is undulated and 

 forms small hillocks ; the vein in which the corundum is most abund- 

 ant is perhaps 200 fathoms wide, and its direction is south-east- 

 — north-west 21 (IX, 256). 



With corundum reduced to a more or less fine powder and mixed 

 with lac-resin, the Indian lapidaries manufacture wheels upon which 

 they cut the more valuable stones (IX, 256). Leschenault states that 

 the corundum sane or wheel is composed of two parts of corundum 

 powder mixed with one part of lac-resin (XI, 230, 231), his descrip- 

 tion of the mode of manufacture agrees fairly well with the modern 

 practice in India. 23 



After arriving at Coimbatore at the end of November he was 

 taken ill with fever, and consequently, as soon as he was able to 

 travel, returned, via Salem to Pondicherry, without carrying out his 

 intention of visiting the mountains to the west (IX, 257). 



Soon afterwards, however, he made a second journey to Coimba- 

 tore, via Trichinopoly, and then visited the Nilgiri hills where he 



21 This description enables us to identify the locality of the " anorthite-gneisses" 

 described in detail by Lacroix (Rec, Geol. Surv., Ind., XXIV, 183), who not only 

 examined Leschenault's specimens, but also those used by Count de Bournon for 

 his memoir on corundum. Besides Leschenault's description of the position and 

 the nature of the corundum occurrences near Tsholasiramani (which is evidently 

 the same as Sholasiramani), his labels state the specimens were obtained 14 

 lieues (34 miles) south-south-west of Salem, which is about the correct distance 

 and bearing of Sholasiramani, or Sholaseraumunny, as it is spelt on the Atlas 

 Sheet (No. 61). The subsequent descriptions by Newbold, Warth and Middlemiss 

 serve to confirm this point (Economic Geology, Ind., 2nd Ed., pt. I, p. 39). 



22 See Manual, Economic Geology of India, 2nd Edition, pt. I (corundum), 

 p. 56. 



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