CiiAi'. XXXII.] 
BALAGIIAT MINE. 
717 
bands have become so friable that on quarrying they break down itito 
a red powder, like brick dust. The hard black flinty quartzite is also 
interbanded with the ore ; and when these bands are thin, they may, 
owing to their resemblance, as far as colour goes, to manganese-ore, give 
considerable trouble to inexperienced coolies, causing them to stack 
siliceous ore. But when the black quartzite is in thick bands it is easily 
recognized by the coolies on account of its lighter weight. Like the red 
quartzite this rock is composed of a fine-grained quartz-mosaic ; but. 
instead of containing red-dust, the quartz is full of minute black prisms, 
presumably of some manganese-mineral, and is in all respects similar to 
the black quartzite found at Kodegaon and other places in the 
Nagpur district. (See Plate 13, fig. 1). 
The total length of the deposit exposed is 1| miles. Of this a length 
Length of the over ^ mile at the south-west end is within 
deposit. the village limits (or mauza) of Bharweli ; the 
middle and most valuable portion, over -|- mile long, is within Hirapur 
limits ; whUe a length of about | of a mile at the northern end is in Manegaon 
limits. The deposit is usually known as the Balaghat deposit after the 
town and railway station of that name situated about 21 miles south- 
west of south end of the ore-band, the intervening ground being covered 
by thick alluvium. According to the letter of Colonel Bloomfield 
above quoted ' in one place in the middle of the town the manganese 
again appears mixed with quartz of an inferior and sometimes partially 
decomposed quality '. This ore has been recently re-discovered, so that 
we may conclude that the Manegaon-Bharweh band reappears at the 
surface here. Bloomfield also mentions that in several places between 
Balaghat and the ore-deposit he sank trial pits about 20 feet deep into the 
alluvium without finding anything like rock or hard substance on which 
a bridge foundation could be placed. We can conclude from this that 
it is hopeless to try and uncover any of the ore-band, should it exist, 
between Balaghat and Bharweli. 
At the time of my first visit (in March 1904), although a considerable 
Width of the amount of quarrying had been done, in no place 
deposit. iiad a continuous section across of the ore-body 
been exposed ; such a cross-cut had been made by the time of my second 
visit (in December 1906), but, since advantage had been taken of a 
sharp local twist in the ore-band, the evidence of this cross-cut was not 
of much value in gauging the true thickness of the band. Consequently 
it is not easy to give an accurate value for the true tliickness of the 
