CiiAi'. XXXVI.] 
■ 
NAGPUE : KANDKI. 
875 
Owing to the columnar prisms into which the ore is divided by the 
slickensiding and cross- jointing the work of extracting the ore is easier 
than it woukl otherwise be. Still it is usually necessary to resort to 
blasting. Two men work at each hole and take turns at the hammer, 
the other one holding the drill (see Plate 30). The hole is drilled 1 to 
3 feet deep according to the character of the ore and in the evening, when 
all work has ceased, the blasting is carried out with the use of gunpowder 
or dynamite. As the result of this the columns of ore are split and 
loosened, and the next morning the masses of ore are detached with crow- 
bars and the bigger blocks broken up with sledge-hammers. l On levels 
1 and 2 the large pieces of ore are carried by women and children on their 
heads and stacked on the level ground at the south-east end of the ore- 
body, while on levels 3, 4, 5 and 6 these large pieces of ore are charged 
into the trucks of the new incline (No. 2). The ore from level 7, i.e. the 
top of the hill, and part of that from level 6, is despatched by the 
aerial ropeway. The smaller pieces are removed in baskets and disposed 
of in the same way. Most of the ore, except that which powders, is fit 
to be stacked at once, but a little of it requires cleaning. This is done 
by women and children with cobbing hammers, in some cases at the work- 
ing-faces and in others at the ore-stacks, which are built on the low ground 
to the east of the quarry. The ore is stacked into rectangular heaps 2 to 
5 feet high. 
The work is let out by contract, one contractor taking perhaps one 
level or one area of talus-ore pits and employing perhaps as man}'' as 100 
coolies. He engages his coolies by contract in gangs composed of 4 to 20 
men, women, and children, who are paid by the petty gang contractor at 
the rate of 4 to 6 annas per day for men, and 2 to 3 annas for both women 
and children. The petty gang contractor, being only a coolie himself, 
works with his gang and is paid by the contractor so much per 100 
cubic feet of ore stacked and sometimes also on the waste extracted. 
The contractor in his turn is paid by the mining company so much per 
1,000 cubic feet of ore stacked and so much per 1,000 cubic feet of the 
' deads ' measured in trucks. 
The stacked ore after sampling and analysis is then railed to 
Bombay vid Kamthi, Bengal-Nagpur Railway, some 16 miles dis- 
tant. Before the completion of the Ramtek railway the ore was carted 
to Kamthi. The carting was then also let out by contract, the usual rate 
being Rs. 4 to Rs. 4-8 per ton. But it often varied outside these limits 
owing to greater demands for carts for agricultural purposes at one time 
of the year than at another. Each cart holds about J a ton. 
1 Four Ingers-iU-Sergeant rock-drills ytwa 2J inch and two 3^ inch) had been 
installed at this mine by the time of my third visit — Nov. 1908. 
