JAN.* — MAR. 1857.] 



Proceedi?igs. 



285 



shillings a pound. The lead is not found in veins but in detached 

 pieces, so that the supply is occasionally irregular and the search 

 for it laborious and often fruitless. 



Inferior descriptions of lead come from Spain and Ceylon, and 

 are used in the manufacture of crucibles and of the inferior sort of 

 Pencils and in polishing Cast Iron. 



At present Mr. Royle says, finely powdered Graphite can, by 

 an extreme degree of pressure, be rendered nearly as compact as 

 the best natural Graphite, or we should be without any more good 

 drawing Pencils. 



The great Manufacturers of Pencils in England reported the 

 Kumaon and Travancore specimens as quite useless for the manu- 

 facture of black lead pencils, observing that they could not use the 

 specimens in the state in which they had been sent without da- 

 maging their machinery, at the same time they could not conceive 

 why purer specimens should not be found in the same locality. 



In regard to the objections made to the specimens forwarded, 

 General Cullen, the Resident of Travancore, remarks that one mo- 

 tive of their selection was to exhibit the matrix or Laterite rock in 

 which they were found. 



2. Reports V, VI, VII, and IX of the proceedings of the Offi- 

 cers engaged in the Magnetic Survey of India, from the Chief 

 Secretary. 



3. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, Vol. I. Part 1. 

 from T. Oldham; A. M. y F. R. S., F. G. S. $fc. Superintendent of 

 Geological Survey of India. 



This is the first of a series of Memoirs published by order of the 

 Right Honorable the Governor General of India in Council. The 

 subject of the present Notice contains a highly interesting account 

 of the Tal cheer Coal Fields, situated in the Tributary Mahal of 

 Cuttack, there is also a short notice of the Iron Ore procurable in 

 the same locality. 



Appended to this Memoir will be found accounts of the aurife- 

 rous deposits of Assam and the vicinity of Shue-gween in the Pro- 



