part 4.] Foote: Auriferous Rocks of the Damhal Hills. U1 
They were not mentioned by the Patel of Dhoni when pointing out all the different places 
seen from the summit of the Kappatgode. 
Mr. Gilbert Elliott of the Bombay Civil Service, now Collector of Kuladgee, visited 
the gold tract in 1856; hut I am unaware whether ho wrote any report on it at that time, 
f think, however, that if he had re-visited the Kappatgode and the other gold localities with 
the practical knowledge of gold mining and prospecting he has since acquired in Australia, 
he would not lately have written so sanguinely about the prospects of gold mining in 
Western India. 
My visit to the Kappatgode was greatly facilitated by the great assistance and personal 
kindness I received from Mr. Elphinstone Robertson, the Collector of Dhanvar, and Major 
Bartholomew, Bo. S. C., the District Superintendent of Police, to whom my best thanks 
are due. 
Other atjriferous localities in Dharwar, Belgaum, and Kuladgee Districts. 
Gold occurs but only in very small quantities at several other places besides the Kappat¬ 
gode region. Chick Moolgoond in the Kod Talooka of Dharwar District, which I was unable 
to visit from its distance, is mentioned hv Newbold. 
Lieutenant Aytoun mentions both Byl Hongul and Belowuddee, in the Sampgauul 
Talook of Belgaum District, as auriferous localities; but in the case of the former gives no 
particulars by which to proceed in making search : he merely refers generally to the occur¬ 
rence of gold sand in some streams. There are very few indications of quartz, except such 
as occur in lainime and hunches in the chlorit.ic schist. I only found one small reef which 
was of diaphanous blue grey quartz, containing no visible gold and no sulphides of any 
kind. The people at Byl Hongul maintain that gold is unknown there, a statement con¬ 
firming the report of the talook ofiScials to the Collector of Belgaum with reference to 
enquiries I made of him. I visited the auriferous nullah of Huttee-Kuttee, an abandoned 
village near Belowuddee, hut was unsuccessful in washing, and a series of samples of the 
alluvial detritus which I brought away proved on chemical examination by Mr. Tween to 
contain no gold. A sample of the auriferous sand which I obtained through the Collector 
of Belgaum was also found to contain no gold. The Patel of Belowuddee informed me that 
no gold has been washed during the past ten years. The Jalgars who used to frequent 
this locality came from Hoobly, in Dharwar District. The sand of this nullah contains very 
little magnetic iron, the almost constant associate of gold. 
All the evidence obtainable is not favorable to the idea of gold being found here in any 
considerable quantity. What little has been found, was probably derived from some quartz 
reef traversing either the chloritic schists or the pseudo-diorite on which the nullah in 
question rises. I did not observe any reef in the valley, but much of its surface is masked 
by cotton soil or ferruginous debris formed by the decomposition of beds of hmmatitic 
schist which occur in large numbers in the gneissic series. These are the ‘jaspideous iron 
beds ’ of Mr, Aytoun’s report, which he holds to be analogous to the quartz ranges and 
metamorphio parallel bands of the Dral Mountains and Australia, and thinks they will be 
louud to characterize the gold zone of Belgaum District. 
Moorgod, m the Pursgurh Talooka of Belgaum District, is another locality where gold is 
obtained in small quantities. Unfortunately I was not aware of this when there, and had 
not an opportunity of re-visiting the place afterwards. My informant, the present mahal- 
kare of Chandgurh, Belgaum Talook, a very intelligent Brahman, who had been mahalkare 
ot Moorgod for some years, told me that from 150 to 200 rupees worth of gold is annually 
co ecte in one of the nullahs near the town. The Jalgars in that ease are poor Mussalmans. 
6 n ° mos t piobably comes from small quartz veins in the chloritic schists, which are 
