^62 Scientific Intelligence, [no. 2, new series, 
ficulty in giving to steel at an up-country station the requisite 
hardness and temper it was feared by Captain FitzGerald, the Offi- 
cer in charge of the Ordnance Department, that much obstruction 
to the work would be experienced in boring through the harder 
strata ; that these apprehensions were well grounded, the result 
showed. 
The boring machine reached its destination towards the end of 
March, but owing to the heavy rods, one and a half inch square, 
not arriving till the 4th of April the work was not begun in earn- 
est till then, as the lighter rods of an inch square were found to 
be nearly useless and it was only by affixing heavy weights to the 
stronger rods that any progress was made. No difficulty was ex- 
perienced in procuring coolies to work the machine for the mo- 
derate hire of a seer of rice and three small pice a day, they were 
divided into two working parties of eight or nine men each. 
At Kotah, the river is about half a mile in breadth from bank to 
bank, and during the hot weather it is a large stream containing at 
least double the quantity of water of the Godavery and by a rough 
estimate is a couple of hundred yards in width. The alluvion on 
its left bank is of various depth, from 60 to 100 feet, and is com- 
posed of tbugh cotton soil with Chalcedony Jasper and other 
quartzose pebbles ; towards the margin of the river the alluvion 
is much thinner. 
In consequence of the tendency of this soil to fall in and by 
clogging the machine and filling up the bore seriously to impede 
the work, it was resolved to bore where it was as shallow as could be 
found, and this occurred in the immediate vicinity of the river ten 
yards from its brink. 
The alluvion of 20 feet was pierced on the first day but so hard 
was the subjacent rock, composed of argillaceous limestone, and so 
frequently did the drill require repairs that it took nine days to get 
through a foot, from the 5th to the 12th of April ; a specimen of 
•what was taken up during that time accompanies this report and 
is marked No. I. On the 13th the rock became softer, and of a 
yellowish color and a foot and a half were pierced in three days, then 
followed a foot of blue clay when again the hard rock intervened, 
