ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 1Q7 



The Jalagar, a very fairly intelligent man, informed me that he had 

 Gold washing in the tried washing for gold in the streams of the 

 Kunchur band. Kunchur band of Dharwar rocks, but without any 



success. This unsupported evidence is inconclusive, and I would 

 recommend further trials being made at Kalhalli (Cullhul)y) and in 

 the different streams falling in to the Halla gilwad tank and into 

 the Yerrayball-Muttur nala. 



No auriferous locality is known to the natives, Chiggateru ex- 

 cepted, as far as my extensive enquiries went. 



d. Copper,— This metal has been found for certain in two widely 

 separated localities, and is reported to have been mined in a third 

 where its alleged occurrence has given the name currently used by 

 Europeans for the most central and conspicuous mountain in the 

 district, the so-called "Copper Mountain" near Bellary. 



The two localities, as to which no doubt obtains, are the one near 

 to Harappanahalli in the south-west part of the district ; the other, in 

 which mere traces are to be seen, occurs at Hollalgundi in the east- 

 ern central part. 



In the first and second cases referred to, the ore occurs in the 

 quartz rock forming two of the great quartz-runs so characteristic 

 of the oldest (archaean ) crystalline rocks of the Peninsula, 



The discovery of copper on the Sugalamma Konda, 1 the Bellary 

 Tippu Sultan's Cop- Copper Mountain, is vouched for by no less 

 P er rnine * trustworthy an observer than Captain Newbold, 



and a legend exists that the metal was mined for by Tippu Sultan 

 when master of the Bellary region. Newbold 's account, however, 

 does not describe the locality where he found it with sufficient pre- 

 cision to enable its exact whereabouts to be identified, and I was 

 unable to find it, though I examined the mountain closely and 

 carefully from three sides. On the third occasion, 1 had the benefit 

 of guides specially deputed by the Tahsildar of Bellary to show 

 me the old mine. They led me to a shallow excavation 



1 Or Sugadevibetta— the former name is used by the Canarese people, the latter by 

 the Telegu people of the neighbourhood. 



( 197 ) 



