1847.] 



in the Province of Malahar, 



161 



No. 3. The specimen of gold from the Devalla mmes is of fineness 

 W 0 car. I grs., its weight was 3 dwts. 2 grs., and its value Ru- 

 pees 6, Anna 1, Pie 10 ; one hundred parts would consist of the 

 following metals : 



Touch. 



6 1 10 Gold 90-88 



5 0 0 Silver 8-86 



Copper 0-26 



Grain 1 1 10 lOO'O 



One ounce of gold of this fineness would be worth Rupees 39, 

 Annas 10, Pie 6. 



From Lieutenant Nicolson's next report dated Caremhat jungle 

 near Careoor, 25th January, 1832, it appears that his inquiries had 

 excited the jealousy and alarm of the Native Miners. *' The Moplays 

 at the Capul mines" he says " having commenced a system of de- 

 vastation in filling up the shafts, &,c. I have been under the neces- 

 sity of applying to the Collector for a Havildar's Guard, on the arri- 

 val of which at Capul (having heard that the same system, of depre- 

 dation was going on in the mines in this direction for the purpose of 

 giving us every possible difficulty and impediment in our search) I im- 

 mediately left half my party at Capul under the command of the 

 Pioneer Havildar, with the necessary orders for protecting the works, 

 &c. &c. while I am continuing the search and endeavouring to pre- 

 vent injury being done to the mines in this neighbourhood, which are 

 said to be very numerous and much richer than those at Capul ; as yet 

 however we have only come upon one, which is in a mountain called 

 Comhala JVally, one of the Ckulumally range close under Nellialhim. 



" The average quantity of gold to be found in this mine may be 

 taken at about a gold fanam's weight per man daily, but in consequence 

 of the constant search we are making in the jungles for the best 

 mines, we have no time for gold-washing." 



The prospects now appeared so encouraging, that Lieutenant Ni- 

 colson considered his means altogether insufficient for prosecuting the 

 work, and stated additional aid to be indispensable. He proposed 

 that the whole corps of Pioneers should be furnished with Trays or 

 Pauties, and be instructed in the use of them, and set systematically 

 to work. Their employment, he was sanguine, would lead to the dis- 

 covery of many valuable mines, particularly in the Coondah and 

 Mookoorfy Hills, " to which we have fairly traced the strata which 

 contain gold in that direction." 



w 



