174 



Account of the Gold Mines 



[No. S2, 



stratum of sandy loam in which the gold is found diffused in grains. 

 It is said that about 250 Moplays are usually employed in searching 

 for it during the dry weather. About fifty or sixty were at work 

 when the Committee visited it, and they had an opportunity of ex- 

 amining the operation of washing the soil on a larger scale than was 

 exhibited at the Capul mines. Instead of the small Trays ov Murriyas, 

 troughs varying in length from five to seven feet and somewhat more 

 than a foot in breadth, properly called PautJiies^ are placed over a 

 running stream or small artificial nullah, one end being raised some- 

 what higher than the other. These are filled with the earth, which 

 is washed by water being constantly poured in at the raised end, and 

 at the same time freely agitated with the hand. Near the other extremi- 

 ty small pieces of bamboos are laid across to prevent the grains of gold 

 being washed away vv'ith the earthy particles. The large stones are 

 thrown aside and when nought but sand remains, it is removed into 

 the small trays, and the rest of the operation is the same as that be- 

 fore described. The grains were collected by means of a drop of 

 quicksilver, the amalgam was afterwards wrapped in rag and placed 

 between two pieces of burning charcoal, the heat of which dissipated 

 the mercury and left the gold in a state of purity. The Committee 

 were informed that the various mines formerly mentioned as worked 

 in the beds of rivers, resemble the one above described. During 

 their stay at Nelamhoor they had also an opportunity of ascertain- 

 ing as far as one experiment went, the quantity of gold contained in 

 a determinate weight of the earth taken from the mines of Capul 

 Mamhaat^ and the following is the result : 



A. Two maunds or 66 pounds of the earth from the upper stratum 

 of the Mambaat mine being washed, produced J of a barley corn, 

 value part of a Rupee. Touch reported by the Company's Go- 

 mastah, 9|. Time occupied in washing, 20 minutes. 



B' Two maunds of the lower stratum produced a still smaller quan- 

 tity. 



C. The same quantity of the red earth from produced one 

 grain. Time occupied in washing alone, 50 minutes. 



D. The same quantity of the red earth from Capul produced one 

 grain. Time occupied in washing alone, 50 minutes. 



" On this subject it may be allowable to quote the following note 

 from Professor Jamieson's Mineralogy. ' The sand of any river is 

 worth washing for the gold it contains, provided it will yield twenty- 

 four grains in a hundred weight, but the sand of the African rivers of- 



