•36 
Records of the Geological Survey of India. 
[vol. VIII. 
It is this variety of gold which the Korumbars evidently always sought for, principally 
from its splendid color; then, because it is so easily seen and often obtained without the 
trouble of amalgamation ; and lastly, because it occurs in the casing and leaders or small veins 
of quartz, all of which were easily broken up in the extemporized mortar holes which are still 
to be seen cut in adjacent blocks of gneiss or quartz, or calcined prior to pounding. The old 
miners seem never to have broken up the big reefs, though they ‘ cayoted’ or dug in among 
the ‘ riders’ or masses of country rock and casing enclosed or contained in the interior of the 
reefs. 
The gold of the reefs or great lodes is generally * line gold,' or such as is disseminated 
j through the gangue in extremely fine particles quite invisible even 
with the magnifier. After the quartz is crushed and washed, 
this fine gold may be seen on the furrows of the rude wooden dish used by the Pannirs like 
little painted waves of color. At times, however, the gold is visible even in the white quartz 
in short streaks and little angular masses ; though it is more generally seen in the same form 
in the red and brown stained ferruginous and cellular quartz. 
The quartz reefs are, without exception, white colored on the outcrop or when they come 
to ‘ grass’; so that it is utterly impossible to say from a surface 
Appearance of loot . inspection whether they shall be richly auriferous, or not. The 
Skull Beef of the Alpha Company which has as yet shown most gold is as white on the sur¬ 
face as any other of the reefs. 
All the reefs are badly defined at the outcrop: they just show a few feet over the ground 
and never stand up as marked walls cutting across country as some quartz reefs do in 
other parts of this Presidency. Occasionally, they show well on the eastern slopes of the 
grassy hills, as when their upper surfaces or ‘ backs ’ just happen to form parts of these 
slopes. 
In such an undulating, or deeply denuded, country as the Wynad, it is difficult for an 
ordinary observer at first sight to make out the true direction of 
the great quartz-lodes, their dip or underlie being rather low ; but 
when followed out for long distances they are seen to have a prevailing north-nortli-west, 
south-south-east strike or ‘ run ’ across the country. At places there may be a slight 
deviation from this; and for short distances there are slight curves; but, on the whole, this 
is the direction for South-east Wynad, and it is always across, not with, the stratification of the 
rock of the country. The dip is always to the eastward, generally at an angle of 25° to 30°. 
There is, however, a tendency in the ‘ underlie ’ to be lower on the tops of some of the 
hills, and to increase in the valleys. For example, the Skull Reef at the present place of 
quarrying dips at 20° to 25° east-south-east, while on the top of a hill a short distance to the 
north, some 200 feet higher, it is 10° and nearly flat. The same feature shows in the 
Hamsluck Beef; and the Monarch Reef, at its lowest level, has a much higher dip than on 
the hills. 
The leaders and spurs, or side veins, strike off' to the westward from the foot- 
walls, or undersides, of the big lodes. They dip and wave about 
the leaders. j n a p directions, very often rather to the northward. 
The great ledges or reefs of quartz appear to vary much in thickness both in their 
length and depth, sometimes dying out, or at least becoming very 
Extent of reefs. thin fol . s } lort distances in their length; and, as I am inclined to 
believe, even behaving thus in their depth. Some of the reefs are traceable with occasional 
breaks or thinnihgs-out for great distances. The Monarch Beef would seem to be traceable 
for about nine miles ; other reefs show their outcrops at intervals for two, four, or six miles. 
