jan. — mar. 1857.] Plumbago ofEumaonand Travancore. 259 



it has sufficient lustre it may be applied to such a purpose, but 

 then it is always a low priced article. 



Notwithstanding the unfavorable opinion entertained by Mr. 

 Brockeden of the Graphite from Kumaon, I again submitted to 

 him the specimens sent to the Exhibition of 1851, as well as those 

 which had been forwarded from Travancore. He considered both 

 as valueless, so Messrs. Reeves whose opinion I likewise asked 

 accounted them " quite useless for the manufacture of black-lead 

 pencils." Messrs. Wolff of Church Street Spitalfields who also 

 make pencils, by first grinding and then condensing Graphite, took 

 a more favorable view of the specimens, inasmuch as they could 

 not conceive why pure specimens should not be found in the locali- 

 ties where both kinds had been collected. But they also observed, 

 that they could not use the specimens in the state in which they 

 had been sent, without damaging their machinery, and it would 

 take time and labour, costing of course a good deal of money in 

 this country, to separate the purer specimens from those which 

 were intermixed with quartz or ores of iron. 



Among the Travancore specimens however Messrs. Wolff ob- 

 serve many which are sufficiently pure for use, and if these were 

 picked out in India and sent separated from the pieces covered and 

 intermixed with quartz or iron ore, there is no doubt that it would 

 sell in the markets for at least £8 or £10 a ton according to its 

 purity and perhaps higher. As Trevandrum near to which the 

 Plumbago is found is in the vicinity of the Sea and near a port like 

 Cochin, there would be very little expense in land carriage and 

 therefore freight would be the chief charge, but this might not be 

 high as Plumbago is sometimes sent as ballast. 



With regard to the Graphite from near Kumaon, Messrs. Wolff , 

 state, like Mr. Brockeden, that they cannot use it in the state 

 in which it is sent in consequence of the quartzy sand and iron 

 ore with which it seems to be intermixed. But from the internal 

 purity of some of the Graphite in nodules, as well as from 

 the appearance of the larger specimens they conceive that pure 

 specimens of compact Graphite should be found in the same lo- 

 cality. But of this, those examining the localities themselves must 



