188 Mr. Verchere on the Geology of Kashmir, [No. 3, 



49. The ore is carried in kilters or baskets, carried on the back, 

 by the means of shoulder-straps, to Kothair, a distance of two miles 

 on a bad hill-path. It is not smelted nearer the mines, on account 

 of the want of water ; though it seems that it would be very much 

 easier to bring up water for the miners, who only know of that element 

 as a drink and therefore require but little of it, than to take the 

 ore down to the village. The ore is broken into small fragments 

 by children, and mixed with the ochrous earth and with coarsely 

 powdered limestone. These materials are piled up in a small furnace 

 about two feet high, with intervening beds of charcoal, and two hand 

 bellows are used to create a blast ; the smelting lasts about 12 hours, 

 and the produce of a furnace is only a few seers. The heat is not 

 sufficient to make the iron run; and it remains at the bottom of 

 the furnace as a viscous mass, full of scoriae, and very brittle when 

 cold, with a tufaceous aspect. The slag is a black glass, compact, 

 and much less scoriaceous than is customary. The iron is heated and 

 beaten with hammers to refine it. It is short, probably from bad 

 manufacture. 



Two or three men and children and some women, all of one family, 

 working as miners, carriers and smelters, turn out about two maunds 

 of iron in. the month from one furnace. There are only three 

 furnaces at Kothair, giving a supply of six maunds of iron per mensem. 

 There are similar mines at Loap and at Kookur Nag in the Bringh 

 valley, on the southern side of the same mass of mountains. 

 From the dip of the beds, it is probable that these works are in a 

 much more favourable position than those of Kothair ; they are said 

 to be much more considerable ; the ore is obtained in the same manner 

 as at Kothair, and there are no regular mines. The ore is the same, 

 according to my guide, a miner who had worked at Loap, but it is 

 obtained much more easily and is found in thicker beds. Mr. Turner 

 showed me some iron from Kookur Nag, and it appeared identical to 

 the pig-iron of Kothair. 



The turn-out I have given of the smelting at Kothair is not to be 

 regarded as an indication of the richness of the mines. I believe that 

 the miners only work the ore to pay their taxes to the Maharajah's 

 government, and that their most usual occupation is to grow a little 

 rice and Indian corn. I have no doubt that the amount of ore is 



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