OF SOUTHERN INDIA. U5 



The miners are now content to sift and examine the old rubbish of the 

 mines, aad they are the more bent on doing this, from an opinion which pre- 

 vails among* them, and which is also common to the searchers for Diamonds 

 in Hindustan and to those on the banks of the Kistna, Parteala, Malavilly, 

 &c. viz. that the diamond is always growing, and that the chips and small 

 pieces rejected by former searchers, actually increase in size, and in 

 process of time become large diamonds. I saw at the time of my visit in 

 January, 1 821 , about a dozen parties at work, each composed of seven or eight 

 people. Each party was on the top of one of the conical eminences, and activer 

 ly employed in sifting and separating the dust from the larger stones : these 

 were then laid in small heaps, spread out on a level surface, wetted, and 

 examined, when the sun Was not more than 45 degrees above the horizon. 4. 

 party of boys was engaged in collecting and pounding scattered pieces of 

 Breccia. All the labourers were D/iers or outcasts, and under no contvoul 

 Or inspection. The misery of their appearance did not give favorable ideas of 

 the productiveness @f their labour* 



The sandstone Breccia is frequently seen in all parts of these mountains 

 at various depths from the surface. In one instance I observed at a depth 

 of 50 feet, the upper strata, being Sandstone, Clayslate and Slaty limestone. 

 The stratification of the whole face of the rock is here remarkably distinct, 

 and may be traced through a semi-circular area of 400 yards diameter. 

 The stratum of Breccia is two feet in thickness, and immediately above it 

 lies a stratum of Puddingstone composed of Quartz and Hornstone peb- 

 bles, cemented by calc areous clay and grains of sand. It is very likely that 

 this stratum would be found productive in diamonds, and I have no doubt, 

 that those found at present in the bed of the Kistna, have been wash- 

 ed down from these their native beds, during the rainy season * In the al- 

 luvial soil of the plains at the base of this range of mountains, and particu- 



* Diamonds are found in the bed of the Godavery near Buddrachellam. The nullahs and small ri- 

 vers which run into it near that place, have their origin in a rock formation exactly similar with those 

 above described. I think it very probable that the Diamond mines of Sembhelpoor, of Pannab, and 

 even of Bijapur arc situated near similar rocks. 



