1854.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 209 



you shall be informed of the result. As I took memoranda of the smelt- 

 ing process by the party I had with me at Pushak, I can let you have it 

 also. 



(Signed) A. Campbell, 



Superintendent. 



Sujot. Office, Darjeeling, the 17th January, 1854. 



In a private reply to Dr. Campbell, requesting a better supply of the 

 ores to enable me to take a fair average specimen (which is always a mat- 

 ter of great importance in pronouncing on the mineral value of ores in a 

 commercial point of view) I have informed him as the results of my first, 

 cursory, examination only, that — 



No. 1. The Chakoong ore is a good Sulphuret of Copper (Copper py- 

 rites) with Silica. 



No. 2. The ore from Pushak is a Hornblendic schist with Copper py- 

 rites and perhaps also Bismuth. 



No. 3. Which is the only specimen which has a label, is marked as 

 a " Carbonated Exudation." It is, I think, an earthy variety of the rare 

 mineral Bismuthite or Carbonate of Bismuth, coloured in places by copper ; 

 but we have but a few water-worn and sintery fragments, and all we can 

 say at present from the minute portion we can afford for examination is, 

 that it is principally carbonate of Bismuth. 



No. 4. Dr. Campbell's Mungwah ore is of no value ; being only Horn- 

 blende and Tremolite (a variety of Hornblende) coloured by the decompo- 

 sition of the common Hornblende. 



The specimen of smelted copper sent is tolerably good, but somewhat 

 brittle, from a portion of the Bismuth and Sulphur still remaining in it, 

 I have told Dr. Campbell that he should make his native smelters roast 

 their ores carefully before smelting which I believe they never do,* and 

 that this will much improve the quality of his copper as well as its quan- 

 tity, since there will be less copper, " burnt" as it is termed, i. e. evaporat- 

 ed in the smelting. 



This discovery of copper ore at Darjeeling is remarkable in a geological 

 point of view, inasmuch as it lies on the great north-east and south-west 

 line, from Parisnath as a centre, on which so many localities of copper and 

 other ores have been discovered, and on which I may add more are known, 

 though their localities are not yet made public. 



I have obtained by accident at the jail where it had been brought with 

 the ballast for stone breaking ! some very fine specimens of anthracite and 



* Dr. Campbell informs me in reply that they do roast their ores ; whether pro- 

 perly or not, is another question. 



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