June I, 1888.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
827 
I should smelt it, and soo whether it would then 
show like virgin gold. 
Mr. Armitage was hard at work with a gang of 
coolies trying to get to the bottom, which I was 
anxious to see, but he had too much water to 
contend with to be ablo to reach the bottom during 
my limited time. 
The word " bottom" as used by gold-miners is 
generally one of three sorts: First, pipe (pure white) 
clay, second, blue, soft, shelvy slate; third, sand- 
stone. The auriferous stratum or washing stuff 
of the miners is found on either of these : pipe 
clay, I believe, is the most common. The washing 
stratum may be 18 inches thick, or any number 
of inches down to a mere seam. The miners have 
no dilliculty in knowing it when they get clown to 
it, and they know in sinking their shafts that so 
long as they have gravel, they have not reached 
the bottom. 
There may be bars of clay found in sinking in 
which there may be some fine gold. These the 
miners oall false bottoms. They try whether these 
are payable to work, and if not, they are left for 
another process. Whether this Deurangalla will 
turn out a gold field or not, it is impossible to 
say yet. The little hills about that I should have 
liked to have seen hard and quarlzy, are good tea 
land. The quartz turned out where they are gem- 
ming seemed the right sort, but I saw no specks of 
gold in it. The whole place for many hun- 
dred yards round in the flats, gullies, and rising 
ground, should be prospected by sinking shafts 
and determining the bottoms, a work which will 
occupy several weeks. — More anon. 
♦ 
THE CEYLON TEA PLANTATIONS 
COMPANY. 
Sir Grcorae Elphinstone, writing by last mail from 
London on April 13th, says : — 
"This forenoon the Ceylon Tea Plantations 
Company held their meeting, and thinking you might 
like to have as early information as possible ns to 
what haa taken place, I got from Keid the accom- 
panying report, and he kindly also sent me the en- 
closed telegram, so that I might let you have the 
latest by this mail. There was to be a reporter at 
the meeting to take down what was said, and by next 
week's mail I'll send you iho account in detail. I feel 
suro you and your readers will be highly pleased 
with the results of tho year's working as set forth in 
the accompanying report, and I must say I consider 
it of very great importance to our tea enterprise 
that such a satisfactory result should have publicity. 
I consider the whole of the working and manage- 
ment of the Ceylon Tea Company to be most satis- 
factory, and published results, such as thu Ceylon tea 
plantations can show will, 1 feol sure, influence fresh 
capital to Ceylon. Thore is a very tiuo field in 
Ceylon for small Limited Liability Tea Companies 
similar to tho one under notice, ana I believe myself 
it is the proper way for capital to be invested in 
Ceylon." 
♦ 
cheap cinchona kkhli fcck for thk 
Ml I. Ho.\ IN INDIA : 
AN KX.Vlli-I.E IO THE CKVLON UOVKIINMHNT. 
I'VomM. V. I.iw c.n, Kn| , Oovornmeut llotanist and 
Director of I Sinohona Plant itious, Nilgiris, to the Se- 
cretary to ( i.iv. rum. -lit, R v. mi.- D. purtmeut, dated 
Uotacnniuiid, iltli January I8S.S. 
I would BUggfllt that sinull packets OT bottlflS of the 
febrifuge, varying perhapi in value from 1 anna to 1 
rupee, nhoii ,1 I. ■,, nl to every 1 'on t master or Other local 
olhcml, who sli.iuM be anllmri/ml to sell the drug*, re- 
tain ing a Hmnll commission (or hi* trouble, an (or in. 
■tMioa is ilouo in thnoaaaol ton Bala ol poetagu stumps. 
It might bo well to consider il tho febrifuge could not 
be brought to the notice of the people in out-of-the-way 
parts, by distributing it also through the tahsildars and 
deputy tahsildars of the taluks, and through the head- 
men of villages. 
From G. Bidie, Esq., m.b., o.i.e., Surgeon-General 
with tho Government of Madras, to the Secretary to 
Government, Revenue Department, dated Fort St. 
George, Gth March 1888, with reference to the 
measures to be adopted to render the looal special 
preparation of cinchona bark more popular, and to 
bring them within easy reach of all classes of the 
people. 
I am still of opinion that for some time they should 
be liberally distributed gratis to the poor in all feverish 
districts, such as Gaujam, where the people continue 
to suffer from malarial fever of a severe and fatal 
type, This gratuitous distribution should bo carried 
out through District Surgeons both at head-quarters 
and iu the minor dispensaries; and tahsildars and 
other subordinate revenue officials, living iu feverish 
districts, should also have supplies to give away to the 
poor free of charge, and at cost prices to those able 
to pay for the drugs. As already pointed out iu 
paragraph 6 of my letter mentioned in paragraph 1, 
the efficacy and cheapness of the preparations should 
also be brought specially to the notice of Local Boards 
and Municipalities, with the view of their substituting 
them in their hospitals for a certain proportion of 
the imported alkaloids. This measure would also help 
to familiarise the people with the appearance and 
value of the articles, and this will be another ad- 
vance towards their more extended use. 
The next step will be to get the febrifuges pushed 
into the bauds of bazaar shopkeepers for retail, and this 
would best be done through the Revenue Department, 
discount being allowed on all sales of five or more 
pounds of the tluid and half poundor any larger quautity 
of the solid. The prices proposed to be charged by the 
Director of Cinchona Plantations for his preparations, 
viz., R12 per pound for the solid and Rl per pound 
for the fluid, are moderate ; but to these will have to 
be added the cost of bottles, packing, carriage, &o., 
which will be considerable. For the present, I think 
the Government might forego the latter and charge 
only the net prices as given by Mr. Lawson. For 
convenience or distribution both preparations will, 
to some extent, have to be made up in small packages, 
say the solid article in phials holding 30 grains each and 
the fluid in bottles each containiug half an ounce. For 
gratuitous issue some 400 or 500 pounds of the solid and 
2,000 or 3,000 pounds of the fluid might at once be is- 
sued. On the 15th December last, I gave orders for 
the issue of 25 lb. for experimental trial in each of the 
following districts, viz., Calicut, Vizagapatam, Berhain- 
pore, Trichinopoly, Coimbatore, Tinnevelly, Ootaca- 
mund, and General Hospital, Madras. Tho district mo- 
tlical officers were requested to distribute the supplies 
amongst the minor dispensaries, and a blank form was 
itsned which will secure the uniform record aud tabu- 
lation of results. 
Tho arrangements here proposed for popularising 
tho Nilgiri fobrifngos are vory similar to thoso that 
were adopted in the case of eblorodyno on its first in- 
troduction, and if energetically pushed, they will, I 
feel suro, be equally successful. I trust, therefore, 
they will now commend themselves to His Excellency 
in Council and that it will be iu my power to take 
further early action. 
Ordor — datod loth April 1888. Tho Government 
agree with the Surgeon-General in considering that 
gratuitous distribution of the febrifuge to the poor 
iu feverish districts is desirable. They accordingly 
diroct thnt supplies of the febrifuge bo scut to 
tahsildars in feverish localities for issuo by themselves 
and through village heads, (roe of cost. Each bottlo 
should bear a label containing directions in the verna- 
cular as w ell as iu English. 2. The proposal to give 
a small commission — say 10 per cent. — ou purchases 
by local bazaaiineli is al»o accepted, the drug bring 
supplied to them by tahsildars. 3. Tho Local 
and Municipal Department will be requested to 
bking tho febrifuge to the uotice of nil Presidents 
of District Boards and Cbairinau of Muuicipal 
