ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. IQI 



cannot be regarded as a rich one minerally. In iron ores, however, as 

 the description of the Dharwar rocks in the foregoing pages has 

 abundantly proved, the supply of haematites of very variable, but often 

 of very great richness, is practically unlimited, and the country may 

 be regarded as probably the very richest in iron ore in India, and as 

 one of the richest in the world, exceeding in its wealth in iron even 

 the much more famous magnetic iron region of Salem. 



The other metallic minerals found in the Bellary country are in 

 order of their importance manganese, gold and copper. 



In non-metallic minerals the district is very fairly rich— building 

 stones, as already stated above, are very plentiful, limestones excepted. 

 —Ochres and other pigments occur in abundance locally — Soapstone 

 and potstone, which are in demand for the manufacture of fire-resisting 

 culinary utensils and occasionally of idols and monumental figures/are 

 found in large quantities, while limes and cements and clays for pottery 

 and brick-making are of common occurrence. The localities in 

 which excellent materials for road metalling are to be had for the 

 mere quarrying are simply innumerable. 



The minerals and rocks of the district have many of them been 

 worked from times long preceding the earliest that can be reckoned 

 historic, and a brief account of the pre-historic mineral industries 

 will be given in the next Chapter. 



a. Iron.— The iron ores of which the district contains such prodi- 

 gious wealth deserve prominent notice, although they have as yet been 

 but little used. Nothing more need be said here of the position and 

 extent of the great haematitic beds of the Dharwar system, as 

 those points have been amply dwelt upon in Chapter V, and are 

 clearly shown in the maps and sections which accompany this 

 Memoir. The magnetic iron deposits of gneissic age are unimpor- 

 tant and will require but little more notice. 



The iron-smelting industry of the present time is but small, and is 

 carried on in only a few villages, and principally 



Iron-smelting. . . , 



in the three now to be enumerated— Kamalapur, 

 Kannevihalli, and Shiddagal. 



( 191 ) 



