688 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[April i, 1891, 
as his lamps will burn, but the moment the lamp 
are extinguished by the gases coilected in the gallery 
he ceases working in that part and continues upwards 
refilling the shaft he has dug with the is from the 
mine. In other cases, instead of sinking a shaft a large 
open cutting is made, in which they follow the vein 
and afterwards run galleries as occasion may require. 
They have no system for ventilating their mines, and 
the result is that after a blast much time has fre- 
quently to be wasted before the mine is sufficiently 
cleared of foul gases to allow working to be resumed. 
Then as regards the timbering of mines. The great 
object of the native inoprietor is to keep his expenses 
as low as possible. As to the timber he is using he 
knows nothing of its strength, and is quite unable 
to work out the strain it will stand. He doubtless 
knows certain timber will resist damp, and is stronger 
and tougher than other woods, and when procurable 
would probably use such woods in preference, but as 
the wood is generally green and full of sap it 
necessarily cannot resist the ravages of damp as it 
would do if it were properly seasoned. The result of 
all this is that the shafts and galleries are frequently 
insufficiently timbered. 
The windlass used is frequently insufficiently strong, 
and has no rachet-wheel or pawl, so that serious 
accidents may occur in raising and lowering miners. 
The rope used is the ordinary coir rope of the country, 
the strength of which doubtless varies very much 
though of the thickness, according to where it has 
been made and the quality of the fibre used. 
Instead of the rope a ladder is frequently used by 
the miners, and these are made of the roughest 
materials and frequently tied with jungle rope or ordi- 
nary coir yaru. There is no regulated distaoco be- 
tween the rungs of the ladder, as at home, there the 
ladders are fixed at some convenient angle with 
substantial platforms of not more than twenty yards 
apart. In Oeylon there is a perpendicular ladder to 
the bottom of the pit, and when it is remembered 
how highly lubricated the wood must get from the 
hands and feet of the natives who have been working 
plumbago, the great danger they run every time they 
mount and descend can be vfell conceived. i 
There is no inspection of the miues, and last 
year a very serious accident occurred in one of the 
Eakwana gem pits, leading to death by drowning. _ 
The Government has enacted an ordinance by which 
they reserve to themselves the right of control over 
the safety of the miners, but as yet we have heard of 
no steps being taken to formulate rules and regula- 
tions for the management of the mines such as are 
in use in England. . . , r, 4 
Of course it is not sufficient for the Government 
to make rules and regulations without seeing they are 
carried out, and for this it would be necessary to appoint 
an inspector of mines whose orders the native head- 
men should see carried out. A very necessary regula- 
tion is an up-cast and down-cast shaft, or in the case 
of small mines at least of an adit, otherwise m case 
of an accident in tbs main shaft the miners may all 
be buried. „ . . 1 , 
As an example of the want of feeling amongst the 
patives, we instance the case of a man who was buried 
in a gallery through the falling of a large mass of earth. 
His companions, taking for granted he would bo dead, 
were simply going to leave him there, but foitunately 
for him, a family oenneotion of his insisted on his being 
dug out— alive. . , , o , j. . ■ 
Trobahly the Government might fear, when first in- 
troducing any new laws and regulations, they might 
eeriously affect the plumbago industry, and conse- 
iruently the revenue obtained therefrom. This per- 
hapH, might bo Bufliiciont to cause delay in introducing 
*^The fear that may ho entertained as regards any 
interference with the trade and revenue in plumbago 
cau only be very short-lived, as the new regulations 
will only weed out of those proprietary miners who 
have small capital and are unable to do justice to 
tha men they employ; but it will havo the good 
clFeot of iuducing a systematio Ciass of mining whicn 
can only bear good fruit. I’or, from what we have 
jilways heard, (bat the further down the uunos ore 
carried, the larger the plumbago veins aud better the 
quality, so that were our mines worked to anything 
like the depth of some English mines, we feel con- 
vinced that the plumbago would not only be found 
in larger quantities, but the quality would be better. 
Wo learn from a geological friend that it is his 
opinion that our metamorphic rocks when they were 
in a sedimentary form previous to the igneous action 
which crystalized them, carried a large amount of coal 
or carboniferous matter, perhaps in the form of lignite, 
and that the igneous action which crystalized these rooks 
which must have been under great pressure, converted 
the carboniferous matter into graphite, and to the 
same igneous action must be attributed the upheaval 
of our rocks, and to this must also be attributed the 
more 01 less vertical position of many of our graphite 
veins. 
Should oui friend be right in bis surmises, it will 
be easy to conceive what large deposits of graphite we 
may find when mining is conducted more bj stematically 
and at greater depths. 
There is still another matter we consider deserving 
attention, and that is the large number of minerals 
dug out of plumbago mines, aud wbiob doubtless have 
some value, bot with which the natives have no acquain- 
tance, and consequently these are sometimes thrown 
away. We instance amongst other minerals pitch- 
blende, so well known as a valuable ore of uranium and 
which has been found inside plumbago. The Daily 
Telegraph last year had an article on the subject c£ 
manium, and amongst other matters noted the market 
price is quoted at about £2,400 a ton. 
Then there is the mineral pjrrhoiite, which is found 
largely in plumbago mines, and from which in other 
countries the greater part of the nickel of commerce is 
extracted. However, we are unable to state with cer- 
tainty if the pyrrhotite discovered in Ceylon is nicke- 
liferous, but think in all probability it will be found so. 
Steatite is, we believe, a common product of plumbago 
mines. Magnetite, showing strong polarity, is also 
common in many parts of the island. Ohalcopyrite, 
a mineral that has been found in various parts of the 
island is one that doubtless can be worked to advantage. 
These minerals containing such rare elements are 
I Columbian yttrium and zirconium, are found in our 
I alluvial deposits, aud would probably be found in the 
matrix were there sufficient demand for them. Mica 
sometimes in large plates is abundant. Gold has been 
found in numberless pieces and in large nuggets iu the 
neighbourhood of Morawaka. Manganese is abundant, 
and of course Oeylon is specially noted as a gem- 
producing country, but on this subject we intend 
writing more later on, and, doubtless, there are num- 
berless other minerals which have escaped notice, and 
we feel sure that the day is not far off when Ceylon will 
prove itself maoh richer in useful minerals than it has 
had credit for. 
The fact that so little is known of the mineralogy 
of Ceylon is in a great measure due to the want of 
interest taken in it by Government, whose system 
has been so far with one exceptional case to leave all 
such matters to private enterprise. 
To those who are acquainted with the Gov- 
ernment and history of Oeylon it must strike 
them as very anomalous that so many new 
laws and regulations should be constantly enacted by 
Government in reference to the health and well-being 
of our imported labourers from India (a class who 
are more specially well looked after by their masters, 
and who would have the same care devoted to them 
irrespective of any Government ordinances), when 
this same Government neglects the health and welfare 
of a large proportion of the aborigines, whose lives, 
we think, should be equally valued with those of 
their brethren of India. 
Should death occur in mining through carelessness 
on the part of the proprietor, the Government in- 
quiry into the death would simply report it as an 
unavoidable accident, and Government would, of 
course, be satisfied with such an explanation. It 
will not do for Government to compare the statistics 
as to violent deaths in this country with those of coal 
mining districts. In Oeylon we never hear of explo- 
eioDs of gas, and (boso who aro poisoued by 
