155 



M iscellansa. 



[ApRIT* 



which cabinet specimens were presented to the Asiatic Society two 

 years ago*, before the formation of the " Indian Copper Mining Com- 

 pany" at Madras, for the purpose of turning to profit the mineral stores 

 of this promising district. 



" From a pamphlet published at Madras, we learn that the copper 

 mines in the Nellore and Cuddapah districts were discovered about 

 40 years ago, by Mr. Benjamin Heyne, whose report to Government, 

 inserted in his Tracts on India, gives the fullest and most satisfactory 

 account of them. 



" Mr. Heyne seems to have been wrong in imagining, that the natives 

 had only discovered these minesSO or GOyears before (aboutl750). Mr, 

 K!err, who has since visited the whole of the mining district, and ex- 

 amined all the formations, and the old works, with great care, states, 

 that the former excavations are of prodigious magnitude, many of them 

 occupying several hundred feet square, and having a depth of 50 or 

 60 feet. The matrix rock and rubbish are now accumulated in these 

 immense tanks ; but on clearing them away, the mouths of the galleries 

 extending into the rocks were discovered j blocks of the ore, (perhaps 

 some that had been gathered previous to the discontinuance of work- 

 ing the mines from some political convulsion or oppression,) have 

 been used to mend the village tank at Guramanypenta ; and Mr. Kerr 

 imagines that any quantity of the richest oref may be obtained at a 

 trifling expence, and within 100 feet of the surface. Extensive hills, 

 formed of lumps of ferruginous slag, now covered with vegetation, point 

 out the situation of the ancient smelting houses, A piece of this slag 

 (which was at first mistaken for a volcanic product) was analysed by 

 myself. It yielded but faint traces of copper, shewing that the native 

 processes of extraction, however rude, were effectual in completely 

 separating the metal. But I must now proceed to observe upon the 

 actual specimens of the ore submitted to my examination, purposely 

 avoiding all allusion to the mercantile value of the mines, the estimates 

 of the expence of working them, and the invitations to join in an asso- 

 ciation for this purpose : — objects which are highly interesting to the 

 community, connected with so laudable a measure for developing the 

 natural riches of the country ; but which cannot with propriety be 

 entered upon in a work devoted exclusively to literature and science. 



" The ores now presented to me are from three different localities. 

 They differ considerably in quality one from the other, and all from 

 the former ore, which Dr. Thomson pronounced to be an anhydrous 

 sarbonate, new to mineralogy. 



" No. 1. A parcel, weighing 901bs. of roughly-picked and cleaned 

 ore, has a quartzose matrix, in some parts colored green, or appearing 

 so from the malachite beneath the transparent crystal. It contains 



* See Proceedings of the Asiatic Society, Feb. 1833, in vol. ii. p. 95. 

 f The " steel -grained, crystalized silvery ore, invariably found in green-stone slate, 

 and partly imbedded in quartz, the richest ore met with," is doubtless No. 3, the sul- 

 phur et.— J. P. 



