1128 
MANGANESE PEPOSITS OF INDIA: DESCRIPTIVE. [ PaRT IV 
examined more closely in 190:5. During the field season of 190'l-05 
Mr. Slater extended his surveys of the Shimoga district, and found 
manganese -ores at or near Shiddarhalli, Hoshalli and Gangur.' No 
attempt was made to open up any of the Mysore deposits till the end 
of 1904, when Messrs. Hamilton Holmes, J. Short, and Eardley Norton 
took out prospecting hcenses for some blocks near Kumsi. Theii" 
work has culminated in the formation of the New Mysore Manganese 
Company, Limited. For the history of this enterprise and the 
development of the industry in the hands of other individuals and 
companies, especially during 1906, when the manganese boom in 
Mysore can fairly be said to have started, see pages 129 — 430 of Part 
III of this Memoir. The first export of manga- 
Olllpilt. T , r r 
nese-ore from this district, and therefore from 
Mysore, was in 190G, when 40,773 tons of ore were exported by the 
Mysore Manganese Company, Limited, since become the New Mysore 
Manganese Company, Limited. 
The output for 1907 was 96,591 tons divided as follows : — 
Long tons. 
New Mysore Manganese Co. ..... 76,894 
Shimoga Manganese Co. 
Tata Sons & Co. 
Jambon & Cie. 
Various licensees 
15,729 
1,427 
816 
1,725 
96,591 
The general plains level of the country varies from about 1,900 to 
2,200 feet. From this spring up ranges of 
tl,rSmitr'v. hills, mostly due to the Dharwar series of 
rocks, the granites and gneisses tending to 
occupy the low country in between. 
The heights reached by these Dharwar ranges vary from a hundred 
or two feet above the level of the plains to 2, SCO and sometimes over 
3,000 feet above sea-level, one of the highest peaks in the manganese 
area being Shankargudda, 3,393 feet above sea-level. The low-lying 
gneissic and granitic country is usually given up to cultivation, except 
where the rock crops out at the surface ; whilst the Dharwar ranges 
tend to be covered with very thick jungle. Consequently a considerable 
1 Op. cit., VI, Part II, pp. 24-26, (1904-05). 
