44 
Records of the Geological Survey of India. 
[vol. VIII. 
cates that fine gold is perhaps most evenly distributed through the matrix, and therefore 
that beyond the first fifty feet, to which depth weathering may be supposed to extend, the 
return shall be tolerably constant. 
The working of the mines may possibly not be as cheaply done as the present rate 
of wages in Wynad would lead one to expect. The coolies employed on the coffee estates get 
from 4 to 5 annas a day per man ; but there is a decided scarcity of labor, and thus a higher 
rate must follow if the quartz reefs are to be worked. A further addition will be in the 
employment of a small number of skilled European or Australian workmen in the handling 
of machinery, and in directing the getting out of the largest quantity of stone, and timbering 
up. Still, with these additions, the labor in Wynad may be expected to be always cheaper 
than in other gold countries. 
Great facilities towards the crushing of the stone are presented in the way of water¬ 
power, which might in some cases be obtained direct from perennial streams with sufficient 
fall for any ordinary wheel; or it might in most other instances be led or stored up without 
much difficulty or expense. The stampers, &c., of the Alpha Mining Company are to be 
driven by steam; hut there would have been no difficulty in applying water-power at the site 
of their works. 
Having then the presumable average proportion of gold in the stone, the value of the 
gold obtained so far, and the quality of the labor to be employed in getting it out, an 
estimate can be made of the possible paying capabilities of the Wynad reefs from the statistics 
of the cost of extracting gold in Australia, where the labor is manifestly much more costly 
than it can be in Wynad. 
In Mr. Brough Smyth’s “Gold Fields and Mineral Districts of Victoria” the following 
returns are given of the cost of complete extraction of the ore from a ton of stone 
£ s. d. 
Ballaarat District ... ... ... ...0 8 8} 
Clunes ... ... ... ...103 
Bright ... ... ... ...044 
Wood’s Point ... ... ... 0 11 6 
Sandhurst ... ... ... ... 0 11 8 
Maryborough ... ... ... ...198 
Castlemaine .., ... ... ... 0 11 5} 
Maldon ... ... ...218} 
Some of these rates are very high and paid on stone got from a good depth in places 
ill-situated as to supplies of wood and water, so that the average of 17,?. 4fi. is far beyond 
any expected estimate of this kind in Wynad. 
The value of Wynad reef gold, when compared with the mint standard of £3 17.?. 
is about Us. 36-12-2 per ounce, troy, which is, of course, somewhat lower than the mercantile 
rate. Seven pennyweights, or the outturn of 1 ton of stone, would then be worth Bs. 12-13-10, 
which would leave a balance of Bs. 4-2-8 on every ton crushed, even if the high Australian 
rate were ever attained. 
The country must now be tiled cautiously, while better or worse results may in the mean¬ 
while be obtained from experiments which are being carried out, even before the arrival of 
the machinery of the pioneer Company now waiting to venture in the field. There is no 
promise like that of the Australian or American gold-fields; no great nuggets have been 
found ; the washings have always been poor, though there is a small supply of gold swept 
down the hill sides every year from the wear and tear of the quartz ledges, and the areas 
over which they can be applied are very small; and the gold which has been seen in the 
