158 STATISTICAL SKETCH 



roof. Some of these shafts are carried for a very considerable distance into the 

 bosom of the mountain. The period of mining is during the cold and hot wea- 

 ther, when the produce is collected at the mouth of the pit, where it is wash- 

 ed by the women and children, a small stream being always conveyed thither 

 for the purpose : the clean ore is then carried to the houses of the miners, 

 where the greater part remains for smelting till the rainy season. Two 

 or three men only are employed in working at the same ' time, and 

 these are relieved every hour. The ore is brought out of the mine on buf- 

 faloe hides, which are dragged along the ground by boys, with a rope tied to 

 one end, and passed round their bodies. The instruments used are merely 

 hammers, small iron wedges, and crow bars ; strips of turpentine fir are 

 used for light. The copper usually sells on the spot for sixty rupees the 

 maund. 



Iron exists in all parts of the province, and as the process of extracting 

 it is extremely simple, a great number of mines are constantly worked. 

 The ore is found near the surface, in extensive strata of rocks, but vary- 

 ing very materially in appearance at different mines. In preparing the iron, 

 the ore is, in the first instance, broken small, and roasted by the miners, until 

 the whole quantity adheres together, forming a single mass : in this state it 

 is delivered by them, for the further process, to the blacksmiths, by whom 

 the roasted ore is once more broken small, and then exposed in crucibles to 

 a strong heat, sufficient to fuse the vitreous matter, which runs off through a 

 hole left for that purpose. The metal remains in the crucible, and is then 

 beaten up into small bars for the market, where it sells at a price fluctuating 

 between 3-8 and 4 rupees per maund. The common produce at the differ- 

 ent mines is from 40 to 50 per cent. So imperfect, however, is the smelting, 

 that from 1| to 1| is, subsequently, lost in working up this iron. 



Of lead, a few mines exist in the province, but none of them are worked. 



