CONCEIVING that the accompanying abridgment of a Report, which I submitted to the Government of Fort St. George in the year 1802, on certain Gold Mines which I discovered in the Mysore, about that time, may prove an acceptable article for your next volume, I have ventured to forward it to you. I am, SIR, Your most obedient Servant, Bangalore, Oct. 1, 1804. Lieut. H. M. 33d Reg. of Foot, employed by the nometrical Survey of the Peninsula of India. Obfervations on the Golden Ore found in the Eastern Provinces of Mysore, in the Year 1802. By Lieut. John Warren, of H. M. 33d Reg. of Foot. me a load of the impregnated earth, which being tried with success before me, induced me to investigate the subject more minutely. On my arrival at Worigum early in February, I collected a working party, consisting chiefly of women, who being supplied with a vaning basket, a small broom, and an hol low board to receive the impregnated earth, removed to an adjoining jungle west of the village, and gathered the earth principally out of small ruts and breaks in the ground into which the course of the waters was likely to drive the dust during the rainy season. Having collected a sufficient quantity of this earth, they went to the side of a tank, where they sepa rated the metallic substances which it contained (and which consist of iron and gold dust) in their very coarse way. This was done by * A placing placing the hollow board which held the earth in such a situation in the water as just to be overflowed when resting on the ground; then stirring the earth about with the hand, so as to keep it as much as possible over the centre of the board, they thus caused the heavier substances to precipitate, and the earth to wash off over the edges of it. profitable trade, I descended with them into the first mine which fell in our way. This was nothing more than a sort of well about 30 feet in perpendicular depth, branching out in horizontal galleries at the bottom, which of course follow the direction of such veins of ore as are met with. A sufficient quantity of metallic stones having been extracted before me, I caused the miners to separate the gold in their own way, and this was done by simply pounding the stones to dust, and washing off the stony substance in the same manner as they had clear They next separated the gold from the iron dust by inclining the board, and with the hand passing water over the metallic sediment which adhered to it, a method which, from the superior specific gravity of the gold, drives the ironed the gold dust from the earth at particles before it, and leaves the heavier metal behind, just at the edge; where, from the contrast with the dull colour of the iron, the gold dust appears perfectly distinct, however small the quantity. The last process, that of separating the gold from the iron, was performed by means of a small quantity of quicksilver, generally lost for want of good management. I have been so far particular in the foregoing account, as it may not be thought uninteresting to trace the mode by which these untutored people have succeeded in performing what is deemed a nice operation. The next day of my arrival at Worigum, I received information that considerable quantities of gold were found in mines at a place about four miles south of Worigum, and close to a village called Marcoopum. I accordingly removed immediately to that place, and was soon after shewn the pits from whence the ore was extracted. Having collected a sufficient number of the men who gain their livelihood by this apparently un the surface. As I shall hereafter be more particular on the probable worth of both, I now advert to the knowledge which the inhabitants of these districts seemed to have had of the gold mines in their neighbourhood. Having moved on the 19th of February to a large village called Batamungalum, on the road from Colar to the Carnatic, about eight miles N. E. from the mines, I enquired of the aumildar (or head manager of the district) whether he had ever heard that gold was to be found so near to the place of his residence; to which he answered, that "the fact had been known long since, and that Tippoo Sultan had formerly sent a Bramin to Marcoopum to examine the mines; but as it was found, after a trial of several weeks, that the produce just balanced the expence incurred in exploring them, and left no profit to the Circar, the attempt was dropped as a bad concern." This account coincided with that given me by the natives at Wori gum; but did not satisfy me, that the method of inquiry pursued by the Bramin had set the question finally to to rest: indeed they agreed in their account, that he never went beyond the limits of their village during the whole time that it lasted; and I was soon after satisfied how imperfectly he had examined the strata of this district, on being informed, and soon after making sure by personal experiments, that gold dust was also collected on the banks of the Pal-aur river, near a small village called Booksagur, laying about four miles S. E. of Batamungalum, a circumstance which I was assured had never reached his knowledge. Any metal found in a state of dust on the banks of a river may fairly be supposed to have been driven there by the stream, this naturally lead me to suppose, that the gold was not homogeneous to the soil at this place; and in order to make sure of it, I examined the earth at various places at the superfice on each side of the river, and I invariably found it impregnated with much larger particles than was the case at Worigum, where it was washed by the stream, but perfectly clear of it out of its reach and below the surface. It then became an object to trace out the tract from whence this gold dust proceeded, a fact which I established several weeks afterwards; but which will best be related, after mentioning the circumstances which led me to the discovery. It is probable that I should have given up any further enquiry into this subject, after having returned from Booksagur, had not Lord Clive (then governor of Madras, and the liberal patron of all useful investigation) to whom I had communicated the former part of this account, expressed a wish, through Captain Wilks, his Lordship's private secretary, that I would revisit the mines near Marcoopum, and examine them more particularly than before. Having in the interim had an opportunity of meeting the Dewan of the Rajah of Mysore, together with Mr. Webbe (our resident at that Durbar) and finding them disposed to assist my enquiries as much as lay in their power, I left them at Bangalore on the 19th of the same month, and on that day encamped near Cargoory, a village on the western bank of the Poniaur river, six miles south of Ooscotta. When once a subject has been started, the mind easily follows it up, and a variety of circumstances originally slightly considered, naturally recur to our recollection as they tend to support a favourite opinion, and to forward the object of our pursuits. As I was surveying the district of Ooscotta, in the year 1800, I heard a story from one of the Bramins at that place, the purport of which was, that "in the prosperous years when the gods favoured the Zillah of Cargoory with an ample harvest, grains of gold were now and then found in the ears of paddy, which grows under the tank, laying north of that village.". I treated this at the time as a fabrication, and took no further notice of it; but now that my mind was taken up with enquiries of this sort, on my return to Car goory, I began to conceive that there might be more truth in the story than I at first imagined; as it was by no means impossible that the banks of the Poni-aur river might be equally impregnated with gold dust as those of the Pal-aur its sister river, and that the plant cul tivated in its vicinity might very well in that case carry up now and * A 2 then then a grain of gold in its growth: I accordingly resolved on trying the stratum at this place; but the natives proving totally ignorant of the method of washing the earth, and having no utensils with me for that purpose, I was satisfied with bringing away several loads of earth taken from the banks of the river, and this being tried on my arrival at Worigum, yielded a small quantity of gold dust, which was sufficient to establish that the Poniaur as well as the Pal-aur rolled gold dust in its stream. Where these two rivers so near to their source could have collected this gold, was, I thought, a question which came home to myself, for having surveyed their course to a considerable distance towards the hills from which they flow, I ought to know best the different tracts over which they went. It then occurred to me, that the gold which I had formerly collected near Worigum, was generally found near certain small hills, consisting of deep red clay, mostly flat at the top, and covered with a sort of conker stone, which formed, as it were, a cover to the hill. Now with regard to the Poni-aur, I recollected that there were three small hills of this description, called the P'attendore hills, laying about half a mile S. W. of Cargoory, which in the rainy season supply water to the tank which lays north of it, and that the same river passed pretty near a long range of this kind near Ooscotta, Sattiar, and Solovehilly. Again, with respect to the Pal-aur, I noticed that I had lately traced it through similar hills, towards the centre of the province of Colar, from this I concluded, that all such small hills in these districts might perhaps be alike impregnated with gold, and be the original mines where it was created I accordingly followed the tract in which the hills connected with Yerra Baterine Conda hill extended, and the success which I met with far exceeded my most sanguine expectations. It was during this excursion that I also satisfied myself as to the place whence the Pal-aur derived its golden store, which was as it crossed the impregnated tract, in a direction east and west, near a village called Manigotta (about 18 miles north of Marcoopum) laying on the south bank of it, and not fas from one of the small red hills above alluded to.. I shall not attempt to give here a detailed account of every place where I examined the stratum. These were mentioned at large in my report to government, and could not be traced out without the assistance of a very minute map of the Colar district, I shall confine myself, therefore, to some general remarks on the extent and nature of the soil where gold dust was found, and also on the proportion of the metal to the bulk of earth which contained it. 1st. The length of the impreg nated tract I take to be about 45 miles, extending north and south, which may be conceived to begin near Bodicotah, and end near Ramasundra, the position of which places may be found, by referring to any of Major Rennell's maps of the peninsula of India.-And the area in which (collecting earth merely at random from uncultivated places the gold dust was obtained) may be reckoned about 130 square miles, and of these 60 seemed to be more richly impreg nated than the rest. 2nd. The gold was generally found in the greatest abundance in a kind of red earth, about two feet deep, and succeeded by a white calcareous earth of equal depth, the under stratum of which was composed of large white decayed stones, and it almost always fell in point of quantity where the upper stratum degenerated into a deep brown earth, succeeded by a livid flesh coloured clay, sometimes assuming a very beautiful pink appearance. 3d. The proportion of gold dust to the bulk of earth which contained it was, on an average, one grain to 180 lib. of earth (avoir du poids) taken almost at random. But from the coarse manner in which it was extracted by the natives, I do not suppose that more than two thirds of the contents were realized, we may therefore safely take the proportion to be one grain of gold to 120 lib. of earth. 4th. Lastly, As to the quality of the metal, I have to state, that what I sent to be examined at the company's mint in Madras, assayed agreeable to the returns of Mr. Roebuck, the mint master, on an average 94 touches in 100, that is, on 100 touches sent in the state in which it was rudely extracted, there only came out 6 touches of base substance; which, according to that gentleman's opinion, shows it to be of a very valuable qua litv. From what I have stated, we may conclude, that should on further enquiry the proportion of gold dust to the bulk of earth which contains it, prove somewhat more advantageous, than in a cursory investigation I found it to be, the quality of the metal, and the extent of the tract in which it is to be found, bid in favour of the discovery, and may induce govern ment to pay some attention to it hereafter. I shall now advert to the mines and their contents, which may, in the event, prove the most important part of the discovery. On my arrival at Marcoopum (the nearest village to the mines) I collected a working party consisting of 12 men, 10 of whom were employed in extracting the stones, and 2 in assisting and directing the women as to the mode of pounding them, and extracting the metal. The stone which contains the ore is a kind of quartz, decayed in many parts, and which, where it breaks with facility, exhibits a variety of colours, from deep crimson to bright orange. These colours are (as I was assured by the miners) the marks which guide them in making a selection, as they pretend to have found from experience, that where the stone breaks without exhibiting any colour but its natural one, it contains little or no ore. Before I proceed any further in what I have to say on this head, it may be expedient to give some account of the people who devote their time to this pursuit, and of their mode of proceeding to busi ness. These people are exclusively of the Pariah or Dheroo cast, and only attend to digging for gold during the dry season, as whilst the rains last, the earth is apt to give way, and many of those people are said to have perished formerly in the mines, having been buried alive by falls of the earth. When they resolve on sinking a mine, they assemble to the num ber of about 10 or 12 men from different villages; they next pro ceed in appointing a Duffedar (or head man) whose business is to si *A 3 perintend |