PAliT 4 .] 
Stcehr: Copper deposits of Singhb/mm. 
93 
had dissolved about 1859; its history was this : after Captain Haughton in 1854, in the 
Journal, As. Society, Bengal, had first called attention to the mineral treasures of the 
district, two Calcutta merchants resolved to start mines, and I went to Bengal by their 
instructions to make investigations and to establish the mining. When it was certified 
that at many places fine ore occurred a company was framed in 1857, having at its head 
the two original firms; and everything was then started on a very great scale. Mining 
commenced at Landn and Jamjnra, anil fine raw ore was turned out at the rate of 
1,200 to 1,300 cwts. monthly. Other works were at that time not yet opened and in order; 
still already the erection of a foundry with steam engine at a, great cost was insisted 
on: and consequently, after my departure, what was expected befell: there was not 
yet enough ore there for the supply of a large foundry; the company dissolved in 1859; 
and the stores, building, and machinery fell to a transferee at an insignificant piice. So 
very costly a management had only accelerated the dissolution of the company. In India 
every administration is costly : hero it was the ease in a remarkable degree, as this single 
circumstance fully proves—Rs. 9,200 had to he paid yearly to the two rajahs of Ghatsilla 
and Seraikela, in whose land the works were situated, for the right of mining and smelting. 
As above stated, since 18(32 great exertion has been made to form a grand new company; 
and in the prospectus mention is made of my name with reference to my report to the 
former company, so I do not hesitate to declare that without further information than 
that already known and established—so long as nothing positive is settled regarding the con¬ 
tinuation of the ore in depth—the formation of a company with a capital of £1,20,000 Ls un¬ 
warrantable. Ore, and very fine ore, is undoubtedly to he got; and the works already under¬ 
taken might be carried on to advantage in spite of the deficient communications, if with 
moderate expectations an economical enterprise be undertaken, hut for this so colossal a 
company is not suited. If the works are to he again established, mining experiments should 
be extended before everything, and according to the results thus obtained such a company 
might be formed or not. No one could expect an exhaustive judgment from the works 
already accomplished, and considering the time spent upon them, the first surface labor 
took place in the end of 1855, and already in 1859 all was discontinued. 
15. Ancient mines. —Almost wherever the deposit comes to-day and is not concealed 
beneath the alluvium one finds old buildings and refuse heaps, where there was formerly a 
mine. In spite of the rudeness of the mode of extraction the work must be admitted to 
have been sagaciously conducted. The ancients never went deep ; sometimes hindered by 
the water which everywhere is reached below the level of the valleys, sometimes by the 
fear of working under ground. The use of powder in blasting must have been unknown 
to the people of that time, for I everywhere found in the old works, where open, single 
pillars undisturbed, very rich in ore, hut in such hard rook as only to be won by blasting. 
The ancients seem to have smelted the ore in little furnaces on the spot, for one finds 
remains of walls, heaps of slag, and even copper bloom in many places. It is impossible to 
determine the age of the old workings; the heaps and fallen-in pits are mostly overgrown 
by thick jungle and covered by old trees ; only here and there one finds large openings in 
the rock, at present the refuge of crowds of bats, whose dung covers the floor more than a 
foot deep; the cavity itself being converted into a beautiful green hall by a thick crust of 
malachite. If one asks the inhabitants when such work was in progress, they do not know; 
and they speak of 100 years with the vague ideas of Asiatics about time, representing thereby 
an arbitrarily long period. It seems to me, however, certain that the present half-wild 
inhabitants are not in a condition to carry out such works : and these may be the relics of 
an ancient civilization, like the rock-temples of the neighbouring Orissa, like the fruit 
trees (mango and tamarind) that one often finds as very old trees in the middle of the thickest 
forest ; as again the remains of the great town Dulmi, which once stood in the thick woods 
of the Subanrika. Only one story has reached me of the ancient mines. Where 
from the lofty Sideshor, the ridges of Bimlrabun, Uuamgurh, and Malmdeo descend into 
the valleys as spurs, one finds on Bindrubun extensive old diggings and pits, and on 
Ruamgurh slag-heaps and remains of brick walls. There, at Ruamgurh, a rajah of the 
name of Ruam must have lived and have made the diggings and houses. In the story this 
rajah is reported to have had two tongues,* so I must consider him as a person who spoke two 
languages, in Jaet a foreigner. The period may have been the 11th century, when the 
Kingdom of Orissa flourished. 
For another explanation of the two tongues, see a paper by Mr. Bull, Proe. As. Soc., Bengal, June 1869, 
