1869.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 173 



to have been the work of Seraks. Here for the first time did I hear 

 mention made of any definite age. Several respectable villagers assigned 

 to the furnaces a minimum age of 700 years, but admitted that they 

 might be much older. 



In the jungle east of the village of Khursi, I was pointed out a 

 ridge of clay which was said to be the bund of an ancient tank, 

 with which assertion I was obliged to be satisfied, as the thickness 

 of the jungle prevented more than a few feet of it being seen at a 

 time ; close by there were two or three slabs of cut laterite without 

 ornament of any kind, these are attributed to the Seraks and are 

 regarded with a certain amount of awe, but no reverence. 



At Panrasoli there is a tank with a chatah in the centre ; this 

 I did not visit. At Bend there is what looks like the capital of a 

 pillar with cogged ornamentation, this is also of laterite and is said to 

 have been brought from Panrasoli and to belong to the Serak period. 



It is due to the ancient miners to give them credit for considerable 

 mining skill; and the slags furnish conclusive evidence of their 

 proficiency as practical metallurgists. 



They seem to have searched the country with wonderful care ; even 

 at remote points in Manbhum, the only ones at which copper has 

 been found, there are ancient excavations. 



In a paper on Arabia Petrasa, recently published, it is suggested 

 that the ancient copper mines therein described, were in all probability 

 worked with stone implements ; such a supposition cannot for a 

 moment be entertained in reference to the excavations of Singh- 

 bhum as they at present stand ; but whether the very earliest outcrop 

 excavations may not have been effected with instruments of stone, 

 it is impossible to decide. 



Although it is evident that these ancients worked the ore with 

 profit, it does not by any means follow that it would pay an English 

 Company to work them now. Not only could the ancients work eco- 

 nomically, whereas every European administration involves a primary 

 heavy expenditure, but in those early times, long before the metals 

 arrived at their present relative values, copper may have been regarded 

 as a precious metal. 



These remarks are made in anticipation of any question which 

 may be asked on the subject, but it is apart from the scope of this 



