2 16 Language of the Gonds or Goands. [No. 30. 



of that rock near Papanassum apparently primary with gneiss on the flanks. 

 This bed runs N. W. and S. E. The graphite occurs both in the limestone 

 and the gneiss and was met with most abundantly in some specimens of yel- 

 lowish calcareous spar obtained from a quarry or pit inkunkur close to the 

 village of Vickersingam which is at least a mile or a mile and a half S. of the 

 great limestone bed and with a chain of gneiss hills between. The kunker is 

 soft, friable and dug for lime and the calc-spar concretions form boulders in 

 the general mass. " The brilliant metallic scales" our correspondent conti- 

 nues " in the yellowish calc spar must be graphite notwithstanding their 

 brilliancy. Rubbed on paper and looked at direct the marks appear black 

 and carbonaceous, but examined obliquely they have the appearance almost 

 of globules of quicksilver, — native amalgam. You will observe these 

 graphite scales also in the specimens from the regular limestone bed ; also 

 in some decomposing specimens of Gneiss and felspar from the Ayen 

 Covil Ghat.* In Travancore the specimens of graphite are from the base 

 of the mountains at Caviattan coodul about E. N. E. of Trivanderam, but 

 you will observe in the 6th Volume of the Madras Quarterly Journal 

 p. 57. in the account of the Trivanderam observatory by Mr. Caldecott 

 that graphite (misprinted granite) is stated to be largely disseminated in 

 the laterite ,which I did not know at the time I found my specimen. The 

 scales at Trivanderam however are very small. I understand also that 

 graphite scales of large size were found at Coolatoray 20 miles S. of Tri- 

 vanderam when searching there in General Fraser's or Mr. Casamajor's 

 time for coal, so that the graphite tract seems to extend from about 8° — 15' 

 to about 8° — 45' on both sides of the mountains, but perhaps still farther 

 though less easily observable in the highly crystalline varieties of gneiss. 

 If these indications follow the direction of the strata N. W. and S. E. may 

 they not point to the similar deposit in Ceylon ?" 



The specimens above adverted to, were examined by Dr. Macleod who 

 recognised the graphite immediately. He compared the scales with the 

 finest London B. B. drawing pencil which they resembled exactly. He 

 also tried them with the blow pipe and with acids and deflagrated them 

 with nitrate of ammonia; though, as he observed these tests are hardly 

 necessary to identify graphite, simply rubbing it on paper with the finger 

 being sufficient. The greasy, unctuous touch and fine metallic polish of 

 the finger are sufficiently characteristic. 



Language of the Gonds or Goands. — " The people about" here'' 

 [Karanjia 16 miles W. of Amarkantak] "are Gonds they know but 



* Between Culdacoorchy in Tinnevelly and Colatoorpolay in Trivancore, in which also 

 a deposit of a kind of tufa or kunkur rock was met with, forming a wall or t cliff with 

 caverns containing large stalactical concretions. 



