752 MANGANESE DEPOSITS OF INDIA : DESCRIPTIVE. [PaRT IV : 
the village areas of Dongri Buzurg or Ponwar Dongri on the north 
and the part of Kurmura Known 2>s Balapur Hamesha on the south. 
The ore-deposit is usually spoken of as Kurmura or Ponwar Dongri. 
No proper development work on the ore-band had been done at the 
time of my visit ; the maximiim horizontal outcrop width seen was 
40 feet. The average dip of the ore-band is about 50° to the south side. 
The 'country ' on the north side is mica-schist with numerous veins 
of white quartz, sometimes as much as 2 feet wide, and arranged parallel 
to the strike. That on the south side was not seen, but near the base 
of the range on the south side medium-grained biotitic gneisses crop out. 
In the nala at the east end of the band the rock exposed is mica- 
schist with an intruded epidote-granite. 
At the west end of the band, and for a long way up the ridge to the 
Character of the ^^st or western peak, the ore-band consists of fine- 
ore-band, grained spessartite-quartz-rock (gondite), largely 
altered to psilomelane^ and interbanded with pinkish, whitish, and dark 
grey, quartzites. On top of the west peak there is an outcrop of what 
looks like good-quality ore ; but on being broken it is found to pass into 
unaltered rhodonite inside. On the descent to the neck between this 
and the east peak similar rocks are seen, with a little merchantable ore 
in places. On the neck between the two peaks some good hard ore 
is exposed, and then on the ascent up to the eastern peak a large quantity 
of the hard fine-grained braunite-psilomelane mixture is seen, the braun- 
ite being subordinate in quantity. The top of the east peak, like most 
of the range, is heavily jungle-clad, almost the whole jungle there 
consisting of bamboos ; the soil is soft black with rugged blocks of 
psilomelane projecting up. A few yards east of the top there is a huge 
upstanding mass of ore 16| feet high, 15 long, and 8 broad. It is very 
rugged, without any signs of strike or dip, and composed partly of very 
fine-grained soft blackish pyrolusite and partly of psilomelane. A little 
further east an outcrop of this mixture of pyrolusite and psilomelane 
is 40 feet wide with a sheer drop of 30 feet or more on the south side. 
This mass is veined with thin lenticular quartz stringers striking S. 28° E. 
Similar ore (showing bedding in places) or psilomelane alone, crops 
out down the east slope from this peak and near the bottom of the des- 
cent passes into the braunite-psilomelane mixture again and then con- 
tinues to the east on a line of hillocks, first as psilomelane, and then as 
various varieties of gondite interbanded with quartzites. In some 
places the psilomelane seen on the eastern descent from the east peak 
