140 
llecords of the Geological Survey of India. 
[vol. VII. 
The annual outturn of wash gold from the Soortoor, Hurtee, and Dhoni nullahs, was 
estimated hy Captain Newbold to be about 200 ounces after 
Outturn of gold. , ... , , , , 
an average monsoon. What it may be at present, I did 
not’succeed in ascertaining, but I think it may be safely set down at less than the tenth part 
of the former amount. The fact that so very few are attracted to the gold washings 
at present, appears to my mind very strong evidence of its not being a very profitable 
occupation. The poverty of the reefs is borne out by the very small yield of alluvial gold; 
and the inevitable conclusion appeal’s to me to be that there are not sufficient prospects of 
success to justify any outlay of capital in mining works on a largo scale. 
The stream-gold is found associated with a black sand consisting mainly of magnetic 
oihcr metals found with the gold iron in minute octohedra, and a black residue not affected by 
saud - the magnet. In the sand washed in the Dhoni nullah, 
I found several minute rounded grains of a grey metal, which on further examination 
proved to bo metallic silver. A couple of little spangles of pale yellowish silvery hue were 
also obtained, which are doubtless electrum, the natural amalgam of gold and silver; beside 
these were a few minute grains of bronze colour, which on examination proved to be a 
mechanical mixture of metallic copper aud oxide of tin. Newbold mentions having found 
a small fragment of metallic copper, grains of silver, and a few whitish metallic spangles 
which he took to he platinum; a supposition which does not seem, however, to have been substan¬ 
tiated. He also found gray silver ore in a fragment of quartz, hut did not trace the source 
from which the quartz had come; nor was I more fortunate in that matter. In a green 
colored and very trap-like part on the pseudo-diorite, lying about a mile north-west-hy-north 
of Soortoor, I found very numerous octohedra of magnetic iron of minute size, hut very 
perfect, with numerous little lumps of copper pyrites and some iron pyrites. Iron pyrites of 
very white color, in minute parcels, is also widely dissemminated in an adjacent black variety 
of the pseudo-diorite. 
Captain Newbold’s notes on the geology of the gold tract are very brief, but, like 
„ , all his observations, very correct. The Kappatgode gold 
Notes on previous observers. . , . . , 
region was subsequently visited and described by Lieu¬ 
tenant Aytoun, of the Bombay Artillery, hut his description is unfortunately very meagre. 
He speaks of an exceedingly great development of iron pyrites in the gold region, and he 
observes that, “were it not that all the conditions on which the large development of the 
precious metals depends are here found in conjunction with the pyrites, it might he imagined 
that the small quantity of gold now found in the nullahs in this part of the Country was 
derived from this source. Iron pyrites, as it is Well known, often yield a small amount of 
gold.” To my judgment the development of iron pyrites is small, except in the argillaceous 
schists near H utteo-Kuttee, in which the cubical crystals are found in moderate numbers. 
Lieutenant Aytoun does not appear to have traced the gold to its matrix, though he inferred 
correctly that it is found among the chlorite slate hills to the west. He mentions having . 
obtained occasionally “ small pepites of gold of a pear shape,” but does not give the localities 
where they were found. His sections illustrating the geological structure of the hill group 
are correct in the succession of rocks shewn, but in various parts he seems to have taken the 
planes of slaty cleavage for planes of bedding.* 
Dr. Carter, in his Summary of the Geology of India, in referring to Mr. Aytoun’s paper, 
speaks of two hills, called the “Great” and “Little” Gold Mountains. These names seem 
to have gone out of use now, or to have no reference to the occurrence of the precious metal. 
* Geological structure of the basin of the Jhalpurba In the Collectorate of Belgaum, including the Gold Dis. 
triet, by Lieutenant Aytoun, of the Bombay Artillery. Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, Vol. XI» 
page 8; also reprinted in Carter’s Geological Papers on Western India. 
