CiiAP. XXXIII.] bhandara: chikhla i. 
757 
as if a slightly elevated dyke-like wall 80 feet wide were running down 
this slope. It is doubtful if it could pay to work the ore in situ on top 
of this hill, entailing as it would the rejection of such a large proportion 
of the ore — except perhaps at times of inflated prices^. 
On the third hillock to the east of Bhiimasiir Hill the south wall 
A sappliirini'-bear- ot the ore-band is formed by micaceous quartzite, 
and on the descent down the eastern side of this 
hillock these quartzites are seen to curl over on to the strike of the 
ore-band so as partly to cover it. This indicates that it is practically 
the upper edge of the ore-band that is exposed there. The interesting 
feature of this rock is that in places it loses its micaceous character 
and gives place to a heavy rock (one piece had a specific gravity of 
3'03) showing bright blue streaks and bands, and abundant platy 
crystals of whitish, light greenish, and light greenish-blue, colour. The 
microscope indicates that the former mineral is sapphirine and the 
latter enstatite. The reck has all the structure of a metamorphic 
quartzite with, in addition to the above minerals, abundant tiny 
scattered crystals of rutile and abundance of ilmenite, occurring in 
both scattered grains and folia in the rock. There is a distinct arrange- 
ment of the minerals in layers, so that the rock may be called a 
schistose rutile-ilmenite-enstatite-sapphirine-quartzite, or perhaps an 
enstatite-sapphirine-quartz-gneiss. This is certainly a most unusual 
type of rock, no doubt to be regarded as the product of dynamo- 
metamorphism of some pre-existing rock. For the identification of 
the sapphirine the characters relied upon are the hardness ( = about 
8), biaxial character, high refractive index, and the following pleochroism 
scheme : — 
ii = colourless to yellowish-green, 
b^pale to rich blue. 
C= do. 
The only feature that is different to the characters of sapphirine 
as usually recorded is the fact that the birefringence is somewhat 
higher instead of lower than that of quartz. Consequently the identifi- 
cation can be regarded as provisional only, until such time as 
someone has time to separate this mineral from its intimate associa- 
tion with the other minerals of this rock, test its chemical characters, 
and take its specific gravity. Similarly the identification of one of the 
other minerals as enstatite is somewhat doubtful. 
IDurirg 1008 this ore in aiiu has been opened up ; there seems to be a larger 
amount of good ore inside than was suggested by the outcrop. 
IV , L 2 
