ISO A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH 
CHAPTER and for which denial I can assign no plausible motive. The late 
Sultan, indeed, is said to have harassed his subjects exceedingly, 
June 17. py making them work at quarries, and also to have been very severe 
on the smelters of iron ; and the people may have suspected, that 
my inquiries might lead to similar oppressions; but according to 
the iron-smelters’ own account, the Sultan gave them a high price 
for their iron, and by his great demand afforded them constant em- 
ployment. It is probable, however, that he compelled them to work 
much harder than they were inclined to do, and that they were de- 
frauded by those who were entrusted with the payment. 
Much steel was formerly made at Ghettipura, from whence it 
derives its name, which signifies literally hard town. It is a small 
village situated by the compass ,W. S-. W. from Samna-durga , and is 
distant from Magadi about seven miles. Near it are many cultivated 
fields intermixed with low rocky hills. The ore is found both in 
the fields and hills. 
The iron ore of the fields consists of small irregular masses sepa- 
rated by thin layers of earthy matter, and is found in beds that are 
from five to ten feet deep, which have only been wrought in a few 
places, where they come so near the surface that they have been 
discovered by the plough. It is probable, that by digging deep they 
might be found to be of great extent. The small masses are easily 
beaten into powder, and then the black sand is readily separated, 
by washing, from the clay and sand that are the other ingredients 
in their composition. This ore is of two kinds; one efflorescing into 
red ochre, the other into yellow. Intermixed with both these kinds 
of ore, which are called female stones, are many lumps of what the 
natives call male stone. It appears to me to be composed of the 
same materials 1 with the female stone, but is so hard, that the imper- 
fect manipulations of the natives cannot reduce it to a powder, and 
of course they cannot separate the earthy matter. It is, therefore, 
looked upon as useless, fluxes being totally unknown to the miners of 
Mysore. The female stone appears to me to be the male in a state of 
decay. 
