IN BUNDELKHAND. 115 



demand would create a depression, a purchaser therefore should fix himself 

 on the spot, and make his purchases gradually, by so doing, he would at 

 least save the profits which now go to the merchants of Benares. 



Revenue of the Mines. 



The revenue of the mines is divided among the Rajas of Panna, 

 JBanda, Chircari, and Jaitpur, but by far the largest share belongs to the 

 former. According to my calculation the Panna division amounts to about 

 26,000 Rupees per annum, but according to Raja Pertar Sink, who is 

 the efFecient manager of the Panna state, it is 30,000 Rupees, and as his 

 authority is likely to be nearer the truth than mine, I do not hesitate to 

 adopt it ; this revenue is derived from a *tax, originally fixed at one-fourth 

 of the value of all diamonds found in these mines below a certain weight, 

 which, I believe, was rated at eight ileitis, but the tax now levied is said to 

 exceed this rate, and on diamonds above the eight retti weight there is no 

 stipulation, taking therefore the aggregate of the Banda, Chercari and 

 Jaitpur shares, as equal to a fourth of the revenue derived by the Raja of 

 Panna, it will not be too much to suppose that the produce of the mines 

 amounts to about 1,20,000 Rupees per annum. 



I have now detailed with the utmost fidelity all the circumstances re- 

 lating to these mines as they occurred to me at the time I examined them, 



and 



* The tax of 25 per cent, was fixed in the best clays of the mines, when the produce was great- 

 est. They are now, however, on the decline, and the natives are quite aware of the circumstance j 

 the superficial extent of the pahka matrix appeared to me to be traceable, and consequently the 

 question of its quantity falls within tlie range of reasonable calculation, whether the natives have 

 drawn their conclusions from this view of the case, or whether they are influenced in their judgement 

 by experience, arising from the natural result of their draughts from an exhaustible scource, I do not 

 know, but to me it appeared, that these mines by tiie em[)loymcnt of a given force, might be exhausted 

 within a given time, and that there is no hope of finding diamonds below the bed of the pukka matrix. 



