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JOURNAL, B.A.S, ( CEYLON.) 



[Vol IX. 



claimed compensation, which, was awarded them. The 

 result in the case of Mr. Jacob De Mel, who had paid £450 

 for four acres of land, was that he received all his money 

 hack except £5. 



Mr. De Mel has been amongst the most prosperous of 

 all who have engaged in the plumbago digging enterprise 

 in Ceylon, his prosperity being mainly due to the rich 

 yield of his Kurunegala district mine, which is by far 

 the most important in Ceylon, having been sunk to a depth 

 of 450 feet near the base of a hill, Polgolla, which seems to be 

 largely composed of fine quality plumbago. From this mine 

 Mr. De Mel obtained an average of 800 tons annually for eleven 

 years, his profits, he authorizes me to say, being at the rate of 

 £2,000 per annum. No wonder if, notwithstanding lessened 

 production and profits in the past two years, connected with 

 this mine there is a steam crane for raising water and a 

 considerable length of Decauville railway for the carriage 

 of the ore from pit mouth to cart, or that the enterprising 

 owner has commenced a base level tunnel at an estimated 

 total cost of £2,000 to free and keep the mine free of water, 

 whether the result of springs in the rocks or of monsoon 

 rains. The effect of the latter during the recent exceptionally 

 heavy burst of the South-West monsoon in May was to fill 

 up the pits and put a stop to digging everywhere. This, 

 irrespective of a fall of £2 per ton from the price to which 

 the mineral had been sent up by the war scare. 



The tunnel in Mr. De Mel's mine, when completed, will 

 not only carry away water, but facilitate the output of 

 mineral from the lower, which are generally the richer 

 strata, besides ventilating the mine so as to prevent injury 

 from mephitic gases or inconvenience from the smoke of 

 the explosives employed in blasting. The draft will also 

 alleviate the heat in the interior of the mine, which the 

 workmen now complain of as sometimes intolerable. For 

 blasts under water large quantities of dynamite cartridges 

 are employed, in addition to gunpowder used in portions of 

 the galleries comparatively free from moisture. The wages 

 paid to diggers in this mine, chiefly low-country Sinhalese, 

 vary from 9d. per diem for coolies to Rs. 1 for those who 

 perform the boring and blasting operations. In the Pasdun 

 Xorale there is a system of payment for labour by shares in 



