NO. 48. — 1897.] GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 



65 



remains, the pit owners being painfully conservative. When 

 rock is encountered in the course of excavation it is blasted 

 by means of dynamite. It is in the blasting operations that 

 most of the accidents occur, chiefly through carelessness. 

 The report, by the way, caused by the explosion, sounds at 

 the mouth of the pits at Ragedara like that produced by a 

 cracker, but at Gokarella, which is two miles thence, and 

 perhaps on a level with the bottom of the pits, the full effect 

 of it is heard. 



Plumbago does not occur in even or regular beds, but 

 varies in thickness, both vertically and horizontally. It may 

 occasionally be more than a fathom thick, but thinning out 

 very often to a few inches in all directions. Very good 

 plumbago is often found near the surface, but as a general 

 rule the lower the digging operations go the better the 

 quality and the larger the quantity of mineral. 



The principal pits are at a distance of between 12 to 16 

 miles north-east of Kurunegala on a small range of hills 

 known as Mipitiya-kanda, about three miles long and about a 

 mile to the west of the Nevugala range, 3,000 to 4,000 ft, high, 

 and almost parallel to it. The major axis of the Mipitiya 

 range runs, as in the case of the Matale hills, north and 

 south. The pits are being worked at Mipitiya, which is at 

 the southern end, and at Ragedara, at the northern end of 

 the range. Paragoda and Maduragoda lie about ten miles 

 farther south, and are approached from Weuda, eleven miles 

 from Kurunegala on the road to Kandy. 



The general strike of the veins or bed of plumbago in the 

 Mipitiya range is east and west, nearly vertical in position. 

 The general direction of the "underlie" in the Ragedara 

 beds is south-east and in the Mipitiya beds north. 



The late Mr. A. M. Ferguson writes : — 



The Ragedara hill seems to be permeated in its whole extent by 

 generally horizontal veins of the richest plumbago, associated with 

 snow white crystalline to semi-opaque quartz, the latter occasionally 

 showing specks of garnet and bands of soapstone. 



16—97 F 



