PART 4 .] 
Bitt-br : Copper deposits of Singlbbnm, 
91 
the strata and lie in many patches close to each other. The normal thickness may he about 
20 inches; in rich spots it reaches 3 feet; while elsewhere it intermits, the deposit is com¬ 
pressed and decreased with only scattered ore, till this also disappears and the deposit can 
no longer be traced. AH this suggests to me separate lodes, i. e., an impregnation of cracks 
parallel to the rocks, and probably formed at the time of their elevation. 
11. Peeuliar carbonaceous mineral .—I conclude this short description of the deposit 
with a notice of a mincralogical peculiarity occurring in it. At Jamjura the lode was sought 
for beneath the thick soil of the plains, and found with good ore. In this newly opened work 
a fault was struck, in the neighbourhood of which the veinstone seemed quite altered, the 
quartzose mass had become almost porous, the quartz had lost its lustre, and had become 
almost friable. In this rock and in the ore itself there occurred as rarities in, as it seemed, 
octahedral or vhombohedral cavities, loose pieces of a peculiar coal-like substance. It was 
found at 37 feet below the surface, or at 100 feet along the slope of the deposit, at 30°. 1 
had early sent from India some specimens to Bergrath Breithaupt at Freiberg, who has 
described this strange mineral in the Mining and Metallurgical Journal for 3rd January 1859, 
from which I here give an abstract of the principal characters:—black; semi-metallic lustre 
on fresh fracture; black streak; opaque; blunt pieces of size of an egg and under; inter¬ 
nally crystalline, very fine grained; sp., gr. 1-92; hardness 4-25 to 4-75, between calc and 
fluorspar; brittle; very difficult to burn before the blowpipe. Composition, mean of Sheerer 
and Ruhe:— 
Carbon ... ... ... ... ... ... 93945 
Water ... ... ... ... ... ... 1‘440 
Arid ... ... ... ... ... 2*895 
Ash ... ... ... ... ... ... 1720 
100* 
It is considered by Breithaupt as a middle condition between anthracite and graphite. 
Breithaupt thinks that the tabular impressions on the carbon may be due to ealespar— 
that in the druses ealespar crystals were produced. This is surely an error’, for I never saw 
such crystals; on the contrary, the coaly matter is loose in cavities lined with lamellar quartz, 
which is often imposed upon it. The hardness given by Breithaupt is not correct for all 
the specimens; many are easily scratched by ealespar. I would mention that T possessed 
a piece of veinstone which together with this mineral contained undoubted flakes of graphite, 
as also two different fonus of the mineral close together. 
Professor Kenngott and Esoher de la Lintlr have more closely examined this substance ; 
on the same veinstone were found white particles of a silicious substance with a deep black 
nucleus, the white exterior being the result of decomposition; lienee Professor Kenngott 
takes this substance to he the remains of the decomposition of a highly carbonaceous sili- 
eious mineral, whereby the silica, was removed, leaving the carbon. 
12. Mining experiments .—In order to exhibit the special conditions of the deposit I will 
now describe the most important mining experiments. Special mining experiments could not be 
attempted over the whole area within little more than three years’ time : they were limited to 
between Jamjura and Rangi. Lamlu was the centre; there were extensive old’ works there, ami 
the flat ground offered an untouched field for exploration. The diggings that gave the best 
opening were No. I, near Lamlu, in the north lode. At 7\ running ftitlionis wo got to the end 
of the old workings, where the width, originally considerable, was reduced to 15 inches. There 
was great trouble in getting the men to continue the work ; and when, among a lot of jackal 
bones, a piece oi a human skull was found, all green with copper, great terror spread, and 
only the most pressing representations, that tin- skull must have been brought there by some 
beast of prey arid did not belong to a man who had perished on the spot, could induce the 
men to carry on the work. The layer was only 15 inches from roof to floor, almost filled 
with rotten slate and quartz iraguients, rich iu iron, but almost without copper, only here 
and there a sprinkle of malachite incrustation. The ancients had evidently abstracted'a,11 the 
good ore till they came to this barren run. After a little the malachite increased, enveloping 
the quartz, and so ramifying through the still broken schist that it yielded from 1 8 to 4 5 
per cent, of copper. The roof and Hour were of chlorite-schist, quite "devoid of copper save 
by infiltration iu the little cracks. At 12'7 running fathoms strings of malachite occurred one- 
half of an inch thick; and the lode was 2 feet wide. From here i i i neivased; and at 151 fathoms 
an easterly drift was started that soon disclosed the most splendid ore; first malachite, th.-u 
this passing into red-copper, and this again into glance-copper This ore finally filled the 
