i83S.] Reports on the Coal and Mineral Resources of India. 171 



portance, but its value will depend in a great measure on the degree of 

 success that may attend enquiries for coal at the foot of the mountains. 



" Perhaps it was the presence of this ore that led Mr. Jones to look 

 upon Pandua as the best situation he had seen for the establishment of 

 iron works for the manufacture of bar, bolt, and hoop iron. Tlie late 

 Colonel Watson also expressed himself favourable to similar views, but 

 seems to have formed them chiefly on the supplies of iron procura- 

 ble in the interior of the mountains, but this source would also it is to be 

 feared, be insufficient for the supply of extensive works.* The vicinity 

 of coal, and the convenience of the situation with reference to naviga- 

 ble rivers, certainly render it desirable that such resources in this quar- 

 ter should be fully investigated. 



" The ore now in use in the interior of the Kasya mountains is pro- 

 curable with considerable difficulty by washing the sands in low and 

 inconvenient valleys in very remote situations. The method of smelting 

 it has been briefly noticed by Mr. Cracroft, but a few additional parti" 

 culars regarding a process so simple as to enable one person with ease 

 to conduct the several occupations of working the bellows, and supply- 

 ing ore and fuel at the same time, may here be interesting, particular- 

 ly as the same operations as they are performed in Kemaon, require 

 two persons for the bellows alone, and so laborious is this part of the 

 labour, and so much exposed to heat and smoke are those engaged in 

 it, that they are obliged to be relieved every ten or fifteen minutes. 



" Over the fire (in the Kasya method) is placed a hollow cone made of 

 clay and open at both ends, the object of which is to prevent the radi- 

 ation and consequent loss of heat so inconvenient and disadvantageous 

 jn the Kemaon method. The mixture of ore and wet charcoal, in the 

 proportion of two parts by weight of the former to one of the latter, 

 is held in a trough at the top of the cone. The bellows are placed ver- 

 tically at some distance from the fire with which they communicate by 

 means of a horizontal pipe. The individual, by whom the several oc- 

 cupations already mentioned are conducted, places himself on the end 

 of the bellows with afoot on each valve (see Mr. Cracroft's figure Plate 

 VI, Vol. f, Prinsep's Journal) and by changing the weight of his body 

 from side to side by an alternate rocking motion, and at the same time 



balancing himself as well as the bellows by means of a rope fixed be- 

 Jow to the latter, and above to the roof, and held in one hand, while with 



* Mr. Cracroft is of opinion that iron works on a moderate scale having machinery 

 liaoved by water wheels would succeed well at Cherra. The abolition of the Sanatariura 

 in these hills it may be remarked, has seriously retarded the introduction of impiove- 

 ;faents of this nature for which there is so much scope in the Kasya mountains." 



