258 



ON THE MINES AND MINERAL, &c. 



to be strengthened by timbers. Notwithstanding which, they sometimes 

 fall in, and the miners are killed. 



The ore is found, as I said, occasionally in quartz veins in the clay 

 slate ; occasionally in the slate itself. The ore at Maiyar also occurs in 

 a clay slate ; that at Borela, in a bed of lime-stone, situated in the clay 

 slate. At each of these places the rock is sufficiently firm to afford the 

 greatest security, and no propping or timbers are required ; but the 

 labor of excavation is greater. At Bhatnor, owing to the softness of 

 the ground, the galleries are roomy ; and will allow of an upright posi- 

 tion : at the other places, they are similar to the copper mines ; low, 

 narrow, and tortuous. The supply of ore has evidently been consider- 

 able, for the number of these galleries is quite surprising : at BorHa, I 

 was told they exceeded eighty; and I see no reason to think that the 

 statement is too high. 



At all three places the ore is the same, a steel grey fine granular 

 GALENA, having a specific gravity of 7,2 ; at Maiwar it is accompanied by 

 IRON PYRITES, and in one gallery by sulphur. The mode of reducing these 

 ores, is precisely the same as that already described for the copper ores ; 

 the sulphur being allowed to go to waste. Similar improvements sug- 

 gest themselves as advisable ; though as the metal is so much cheaper, 

 and the process of reduction so much more facile, they do not appear to 

 be so imperiously called for, as an amelioration of the system of working 

 the copper. A singular fact is, that the ore and reduced metal sell, by 

 weight, for the same price at Kdlsi, the nearest town. I could not learn 

 the reason of this ; but suppose that the produce of sulphur, pays the 

 expence of reducing the ore. 



