32 
Records of the Geological Survey of India. 
[VOL. VIII. 
and has thus not been subjected to that exposure and attrition which seem necessary for the 
production of the finally purer metal usually obtained from alluvial washings. In addition to 
this, a further small rolled fragment of good yellow gold without quartz, weighing nearly 11 
grains, was lately found by the Pannirs of Dayvallah; and a larger one, weighing 21'9 grains, 
is in the possession of Mr. II. V. Ryan of Glenrock—Mr. Minchin and Mr. Ryan have each 
occasionally employed coolies on their estates to wash for gold, hut they do not find that the 
quantity obtained is sufficient to encourage any further exploration. The latter gentleman 
has collected 8'1 dwts. of gold, amongst which is the small nugget just mentioned. Out of 
this, 150'9 grains had to he collected by amalgamation and there were 2T6 grains of dust. 
The gold generally found by the Pannirs is in very fine dust, or in small flat spangles only- 
collectible from the black iron-sand, finally left with them, by amalgamation in the wooden 
washing dish or murriya; but at times there are somewhat larger pepitas. This size of the 
grains agrees with what I have seen of the precious metal in the matrix. 
The stream sands are next resorted to, but they are of no extent in this part of Wynad, 
, . as there are no large reaches, or hollows in the river beds in which 
From stream sands, &e. ... , ° ... _ , „ 
gold could be stored up, while, as 1 shall presently endeavour to 
show, there is not much likelihood of its being retained in them, even if it were washed down 
in any quantity. As it is, the usual small amount of gold is obtained here also by the 
washers. In both conditions of deposit, as surface soil, or as river sand, the men nearly 
always only scrape a few inches of stuff from the surface; they do not dig down to bottom- 
rock, or to any r bottom-layer of compact stuff answering to pipe-clay. 
It will thus be seen that a somewhat different mode of occurrence of the gold dust 
Poverty of these accounted (not in pockets, or at the bottom of lighter and permeable 
for - materials), and system of washing adopted (surface scrapings 
only being sifted) exist in Wynad from what is known in Australia and California. Much 
of this may be attributable to the heavy denuding force of the south-west monsoon; 
or, in other words, a vory large proportion of the ore weathered out of the quartz veins and 
adjacent country rock is carried down during the rains to the low country of Malabar. At 
such times every stream in Wynad is a rushing torrent in which no sediment is allowed to 
rest until it reaches the slower-flowing, wider and deeper', rivers of the plains. As the mon¬ 
soon slackens, a little new auriferous soil is allowed to remain on the cleaned hill sides, and 
the old basins and reaches of the stream beds are again filled up with their usual accumula¬ 
tion of mud, sand, and gravel, and thus a small supply of gold is collected. There is no 
doubt that in the decreasing flow of water, gold dust and heavy iron sand must necessarily 
at many places settle down first in the hollows, but these are few and far between, irrespect¬ 
ive of their being difficult of access by the natives. At any rate such places are not known 
or searched to any extent in Wynad; and it seems to me that the fact of the men preferring 
generally 7 to wash stuff scraped from the surface of the coarsest gravel and sand banks (the 
very places where the drifting gold would be retarded by the rough bottom and then permit¬ 
ted to settle down among the stones) points directly to the transporting power of the mon¬ 
soon streams. This is also borne out by the habit which the men have of going at certain 
intervals to places known to them as having yielded gold on previous occasions, where they 
do not find the accumulations of centuries of denudation, but the gatherings up of only one 
or two seasons. 
In certain parts of Wynad, and more particularly around Sultan’s Battery, or in the 
„ . , , neighbourhood of Manantoddy, the valleys are filled in with exten- 
Proper alluvial deposits. , . , , 
sive and thick alluvial deposits through which the streams almost 
immediately after they leave the steeper hill-sides, often pursue a long and devious course, 
or become lost for a time in deep and dangerous swamps. In Nambalycode and Moonad 
