23 
1877.] Chandrasekhara Banurji —The Kaimur Range. 
transport to the Railway Station at Chansa; hut it is little used at 
present. 
In the days of Dr. Buchanan there was a large mine of alum and 
Sulphate of Iron at the Kairya Ghat near Rohtas, but I do not know 
if it is worked now. In developing the resources of the hills, British 
enterprise was here, as elsewhere, the great pioneer. The mine was first 
worked by the energy of a gentleman whom the natives, when Dr. Buchanan 
visited the place about the year 1808, remembered as Mr. Phojel. But • 
with the death of the latter, the mines fell into neglect, and no one has 
since been attracted to the secluded valley. 
The sandstone of the hills is peculiarly hard, and admits of good polish. 
The quarries are abundant—ashlers, paving stones, pillars, and other materials 
for building purposes are hewn out everywhere along the slopes. Cups, 
plates, mill-stones are also cut, and even the potter’s wheels in these parts 
are made of slender slabs of sandstone. Out of the bluish block of horn- 
stone, images of idols are modelled and sent to Banaras and Gairik : red 
ochre is also taken to several towns. Regarding the quality of the 
sandstone Mr. Mallet observed that “ it is fine-grained and homogeneous, 
yellowish and grayish-white in colour, occurring in beds several feet thick, 
and perfectly free for long distances from any kind of jointing or fissures, 
so that very large blocks may be excavated. Some stone finds its way even 
as far as Calcutta, being in use by the undertakers for tomb-stones, floorings, 
&c. The stone of the Jumna bridge was obtained from quarries some miles 
up the river. The cities of Benares, Mirzapur and Allahabad, besides others 
of less note, draw their supplies of building stone exclusively from the 
Caimures.”* 
The red variety is, for architectural purposes, much inferior to the white. 
The irregularity of its colouring greatly mars the effect, as will be remem¬ 
bered by any one who has visited the Taj, where the frequent juxta-position 
of red and partially white blocks of sandstone and the streaked and blotched 
appearance of others forms a most unsightly blemish to the gateway 
and other outer buildings of that noble and almost faultless mausoleum. 
The yellowish white sandstone is a splendid material, capable of being 
cut into immense blocks. Many noble buildings, extending from the 
palace at Bharatpur to the cupolas of Rohtasgarh, attest the durability of 
the Yindhyan stone. 
The crops and food grains grown on the tableland are those raised 
everywhere in Bihar. Millet and maize are reaped in October. Wheat, 
barley and gram grow on the mountain top. Rice of good flavour is gathered 
in winter. But the cultivation of either cotton, poppy, or sugarcane is 
never attempted. In several places the plains immediately adjoining the 
* Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, Yol. YII, page 116. 
