J 13 DIAMOND MINES OF PANNA 



than that which contains the diamond ; moreover, black bituminous shale 

 rises to the surface near the village of Sahigerh, though in the diamond 

 tract I have never seen it with less than 400 feet of sandstone resting 

 upon it ; ow the east, the sandstone continues pretty much the same, and I 

 cannot offer any satisfactory reason why diamonds should not be found 

 east of the Cheyla NacU, which at present is considered to be their eastern 

 boundary. 



3d. I have endeavoured to show that the rocky matrix of the dia- 

 mond of Panna is situated in sandstone, which I imagine to be the same as 

 the new red sandstone of England; also, that (if the transported diamonds 

 are excepted,) there is at least 400 feet of that rock below the lowest dia- 

 mond beds ; and further, that there are strong indications of coal, under- 

 lying the whole mass ; how far this may agree with the *geological posi- 

 tion of the same description of mines in Southern India, will best be 

 seen from the following extracts. 



As far as I understand. Dr. Heyne, in his tracts on India, pages 103-4, 

 the hills which surround the rock mines of Banganpilli, are composed of 

 slate clay, and his account of them reminds me much of Panna, he says, 

 *' they are straight at top, and usually level for some extent," so that 



even 



* Mr. Mawe says, " the diamonds of Brazil, like tliose of India, are found in a loose gravel, im- 

 mediately incumbent on the solid rock, and covered with vegetable mould and recent alluvial matter. 

 This gravel consists principally of rounded quartz pebbles of various sizes, mixed with sand and oxide 

 of iron ;" in some parts which he visited, he says further, " the gravel is cemented by m.eans of the 

 oxide of iron into a considerably hard conglomerate forming rocks and low hills, in the sides of which 

 are water-courses produced by torrents during the rainy season, in these hollows, diamonds are not 

 unfreq'iently discovered," and he concludes by saying, that " if this conglomerate is not the real ma- 

 trix of the diamond, its true geological situation is unknown." (Mawe on Diamonds.) The matrix of 

 Mr. Mawe appears to resemble that of the transported diamonds of the Panna mines, and as far 

 as I can judge by description, it seems still nearer to resemble those of Southern India. 



