680*
he has dug. Before him he has then a face containing ore, more or lefs intermixedwi;h clay, fand, and haematites, and covered with two or three feet of the externalFoil. He then fcoops out the ore, and matters with which it is mixed; and havingbeaten them well with the pick-axe, and rubbed them with his hands, he picks outthe fmall pieces of ore, and throws away the haematites, fand, clay, ochre, and largepieces of ore; affigning as a reafon for fo doing, that, as he can get plenty of fmallpieces there is no occafion for him to be at the trouble of breaking the large ones.The crumbling ores are alfo much neglected, as they are tranfported with difficulty."When they have dug as far as they choofe to venture, which is indeed a very littleway, the miners go to another fpot, and form a new pit. The ore, broken as I havenow mentioned, is carried down on affes backs, and farther cleaned from earth, andbroken into very fmall pieces, before it is put into the furnace. If it is to be carriedfar, it is generally tranfported by buffaloes; but this unwieldy animal is incapable ofafcending the hill, which in many places is very fteep, and the paths are formed onthe mouldering materials that have been thrown away by the miners. There is noperfon who prepares the ore for thofe who come from a diltance; they remain herefor fome time with their affes; and, when they have collected a confiderable quantity, anumber of buffaloes are brought to carry it away. The renter has no occafion tocome near the mine. He knows the men that get a fupply of ore, and each paysyearly a certain fum, and takes as much ore as he pleafes. The renter Hates thefurnaces that are fupplied from hence to be fix in Tumcuru, ten in Hagalawadi,feven in Chica Nayakana Hully, and three in Sira; but I have accefs to know thathe conceals part of them; yet he is much more correct than the revenue accomptsthat are kept in Purnea’s office at Seringapatam .
No tradition remains concerning the time when this mine began to be wrought, forthe natives think that ore has been taken from it ever fince the creation of theworld; or, as they exprefs themfelves, fince the bill was born; and, as above 100afs-loads are daily carried from it, I think it probable that the miners have repeatedlygone over the furface. At each time the natives remove only a very fmall propor-tion of the iron ; and after a certain number of years, new decompofitions, and recom-pofitions of the materials, feem capable of rendering the furface again fit for theirmanner of working.
The miners have a tradition, that formerly there had been dug into the fouthernface of the largeft hummock an immenfe cavern, from whence the whole neighbour-hood was fupplied with ore. The roof of this is faid to have given way, and tohave buried the miners of feven villages, with all their cattle. The appearance ofthe hill confirms the truth of this tradition, there being evident proofs of a part of ithaving fallen in; and in the perpendicular furface, left by this convulfion, may befeen the mouth of a cavern, probably a part of the old mine. The time when thishappened is likely to have been very remote; as, lower down than this convulfedfurface, there is another mine, which the natives believe to be a natural cavern, andinto which, not without fome reafon, they are afraid to enter. Indeed, none of them,have attempted it; for they are perfuaded that it extends a great way into the earth,which made me curious to examine it.
The miners have evidently wrought into this part of the mine from the weftward ;and until they came to the ledge of earthy quartz, or hornftone, before mentioned,they have carried on a regular face of confiderable width and depth. This ledgecutting off the mine, they had by the fide of the barren rock made a horizontalcavity into the hill, and thus formed a cavern about fifty feet long, twelve feet high,
you. viii. 4 t and