296 A sketch of the Behar Mica Mines. [No. 4. 



but from their very insignificant proportions, they are quite useless. 

 A very beautiful schorlaceous schist, consisting of crystals of schorl 

 of a delicate fineness, embedded in mica, as well as larger crystals of 

 raven black schorl, varying in size from that of a finger to that of 

 a man's arm, embedded in a bright glassy quartz and affording by 

 the contrast of the two minerals a very beautiful object, are found 

 in great abundance ; such is the nature of the minerals in the im- 

 mediate neighbourhood of the mines, which are always opened in 

 low detached hills. The mica appears in amorphous masses varying 

 from a few inches square, to four feet in length, embedded in an 

 incoherent soil composed of schorl and comminuted silvery mica, the 

 whole mass filling up extensive interstices between large and widely 

 separated quartz rocks. 



The mode of opening a mine is as follows : a small and convenient 

 hill having been chosen as the spot for commencing operations upon, 

 a party of the wild hill tribes, named Bandathis, the members of 

 which party have freely propitiated the local tutelary god or goddess, 

 both by sacrifice and by getting very drunk, ascend to the top of the 

 hill and commence sinking a series of pits, the whole way down the 

 profile of the hill, about three feet in diameter each, and a few feet 

 apart. These pits are not continued vertically downwards, but in a 

 zig-zag shape, but nevertheless not so much out of the vertical proper, 

 as that a basket containing the mineral cannot be hauled up from the 

 bottom of the pit to the top ; the zig-zag shape of the shaft being 

 formed by sinking the shaft, first inclining to the left a few feet and 

 then to the right a few feet, the head of each cut or notch forming a 

 landing-place or step, and thus the necessity of ladders is obviated ; 

 the projecting of salient angles of the notches forming a perfect flight 

 of steps from the top to the bottom of the pits, which seldom reaches 

 to a greater depth than forty feet, when darkness interfering with the 

 workman's progress, the pit is forsaken and another commenced upon 

 a few feet further down the hill. A slight frame-work of faggots cut 

 from the neighbouring trees, is placed over the mouth of each pit, 

 upon which a man sits, waiting till the signal from below is given to 

 haul up the basket containing the mica and rubbish, which has been 

 dug from the sides of the pit by the aid of a rude pick. On arrival 

 at the surface the good and bad materials are separated, the earth and 



