JAN. — MAIL 1857.] Mines of Antimony, 
255 
the principal being a Sulphuret of Antimony. In June 1855, 
M. Marcadieu, the Analytical Chemist, visited the locality, and while 
he acknowledged the richness of the mine, urged that placed as it 
is at an elevation of 13,507 feet, and covered for a great portion of 
the year with snow, no great commercial benefit could be antici- 
pated from it. Major Hay, however was by no means discou- 
raged, and determined to prosecute his researches, the results of 
Avhich he communicated to the Deputy Commissioner of Kan- 
gra. 
Six distinct beds of metal are now visible on the surface, three 
of which have been worked. Major Hay believes that the supply 
is inexhaustible, and tHe specimen sent to Dr. Macnamara for 
analysis, was found to contain so much as sixty per cent, of pure 
metal. It appears that owing to the dreariness of the locality, and 
other unfavourable causes, it would not be advisable to work the 
mines for more than three months in the year, and even during 
that limited period, the labourers would have to work under con- * 
siderable disadvantages. Major Hay calculated that including 
every expense, the Antimony could be landed at Nuggur for two 
rupees ^qx pucha maund; but he seems to have made no allowance 
for the impurities with which the metal must always* be impreg- 
nated, and it is said that the three hundred and twenty kucha 
maunds lodged at Nuggur, probably do not contain more than one 
hundred and sixty maunds or sixty pucha maunds of pure metal. 
The Officiating Commissioner and Superintendent of the Trans- 
Sutlej States, is disposed to estimate the precise cost of the An- 
timony at Nuggur, after purification, at double or triple the price 
fixed by Major Hay. 
With the view of testing the commercial value of the Antimony 
sent down, a meeting of the merchants of Julundhur trading in 
this article was called, and they assured Major Lake the Officiat- 
ing Commissioner that in its then impure state. Major Hay's An- 
timony would scarcely find a market ; that the sulphur with which 
it was impregnated would seriously affect its value, and that even 
under the most favorable circumstances, it would scarcely fetch 
more_ than four or five rupees a puclca maund. The Officiating 
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