XVIII. ACCOUNT OF THE CORNELIAN MINES IN THE NEIGH- IN A LETTER TO THE SECRETARY FROM JOHN COPLAND, ESQ. of the Read 28th March, 1815. TO WILLIAM ERSKINE, Esq. Secretary to the Literary Society. SIR, HAVING arrived at Baroach with the European part of the expedition, on our route from Bombay to Baroda, to be placed under the command of Colonel Holmes, I took advantage of the few days the troops remained there, to visit the famous tree denominated kubecr bur, and the cornelian mines in the territories of the raja of Rajpiplec. I regret that my time was too limited to enable me to give such an account of these objects as I could wish; but as the latter, as far as my observation goes, has never been publicly noticed, I am induced to hazard this, and shall be gratified if you think my mite worthy to be added to the stock of Eastern knowledge already collected by the Bombay Literary Society. Accompanied by one or two others actuated by the same curiosity, I left Baroach (the Bargasa of the ancients, Bhreegoo Khsheto of the -Hindoos) on the 3d of December 1814, about five o'clock P.M., and committed myself to the celebrated and sacred stream Rewa, commonly called Nurbuda, at the turn of the tide: but from the great quantity of water discharged by this mighty river, we had soon to pull against the stream. About midnight we arrived at the island of Kubeer Bur, twelve miles N.E. of Baroach. The moon, while it enabled us to form a tolerably accurate idea of the tree, left darkness enough in its shades greatly to increase the solemn grandeur of the scene. The lofty arches and colonnades, the immense festoons of roots, the extent of ground it covered, and its enormous trunks, proclaimed its great antiquity, and struck me with an awe similar to what is inspired by a fine Gothic cathedral; while the fresh green of its thick foliage showed it still in the vigour of life: I should guess it to cover from three to four acres. Its branches rise so high, that many miles off it is a conspicuous object, bearing a resemblance to a hill on the extremity of the island. The tree is washed on its eastern base by the river, having to the west and south a ridge of sand, which is covered by the spring tides, and on the north the island extends for three miles, exhibiting a plain most fruitful in whatever requires a light sandy soil. The river here altering its course from north and south, runs east and west. At the time of the high swells at the latter end of the rains the island is overflowed, and the few inhabitants, like so many of the monkey tribe, (with whom they mingle) are compelled to take refuge in the lofty branches of the tree, and remain there for several days until the water subsides, the current being too rapid for a boat to render them relief. The popular tradition among the Hindoos concerning the tree is, that a man of great sanctity named Kubeer, having cleaned his teeth, as practised in India, with a piece of stick, stuck it into the ground, that it took root and became what it now is. He was afterwards canonized, and his image we saw sitting in a temple near one of the oldest-looking trunks (his metamorphosed tooth-brush). To this temple, people from far and near come to pay their devotions: the ceremonies are performed by the religious mendicants called Byragees, under the superintendence of a head man, who is stationary; the rest (with the exception of the pupils who beg in the neighbouring main-land) being wanderers from all parts of India. We intended to pass the night under the protection of this saint; but our cots not having come up, we were obliged to return to the barge, and sleep in boat-cloaks instead of a temple. At day-break we landed opposite the village of Neemoodra, which is three miles distant from the river, and south of Kubeer Bur, where we found our horses waiting: the mines lie about twelve miles to the eastward of this village. About five miles be, yond Neemoodra we came to a rivulet named Kaweeree, and although of no importance during the dry season, it becomes a most formidable river in the rains. Its bed consists chiefly of quartz and agate pebbles; among the latter were many varieties, the most uncommon I remarked were of a dark blue colour with white veins. A striated rock varying from fifty to a hundred feet in height overhangs the river on the western side for several miles. I regret much not having had time to examine it particularly: its dip toward the south-east might have been 45°. On ascending from the bed of the river, we passed on our left the little village of Rutunpoor, in which resides a thanadar on the part of the Rajpiplee state, (whose jurisdiction is only in matters of police, and confined to the district dependent on this village,) and proceeded onward by a narrow footpath through jungle, having rising ground almost the whole way to the mines. The country is but here and there cultivated, yielding crops of juwaree and other productions common in Guzerat; but owing to the stony and unproductive nature of the soil, it vies not with the opposite side of the Nurbuda, which is cultivated like a garden, and in the far greater part of which no stones of any description are to be found. The diversity of scenery, hills and valleys, pebbly beds of rivers, precipitous rocks, and extensive plains covered with jungle,-was sufficiently romantic. On account of the tigers with which the country abounds, no human habitations were found nearer the mines than Rutunpoor, which is seven miles off. The miners reside at Neemoodra, where alone the stones are burnt. The mines are in the wildest part of the jungle, and are very numerous; they are shafts working perpendicularly downward, about four feet wide; the deepest we saw was fifty feet: some extend in a horizontal direction at the bottom, but in consequence of the earliness of the season few had reached a depth sufficient to render this turn necessary, and in those that had, it was not carried many feet. In using the term "earliness of season" it is proper to mention, that the nature of the pits is such as to prevent their being worked a second year on account of the heavy rains, which cause the banks to fall in, so that new ones are opened at the commencement of every fair season. We arrived at the mines about seven o'clock A.M., when none of the workmen had come except one, who accompanied us as a guide from Neemoodra. We were informed that the fire-damp (hydrogen gas) was not uncommon in the mines, and that the miners did not descend till the sun had risen sufficiently to dispel the vapours. We went to the bottom of one pit, about thirty feet deep, without any assistance from ropes or ladders, by means of small niches for the feet and hands on opposite sides of the pit, but understood that the miners always made use of a rope to hold by, of which we could not avail ourselves, as the workmen at the close of their labour carry to their homes the simple instruments of their vocation, together with the stones which the day's labour has acquired. The soil is gravelly, consisting chiefly of quartz sand reddened by iron, and a little clay. The nodules may weigh from a few ounces to two or even three pounds, and lie very close to each other; but for the most part distinct, not in strata but scattered through the mass, and in the greatest abundance. I saw none of a red colour at the mines; some were blackish olive like common dark flints, others somewhat lighter; and others lighter still, with a slight milky tinge. The first, our guide informed us, would be black when burnt; the second, red; and the third, white. In this he may have been correct; but I doubt the fact as to the first, which we found in a proportion inconsistent with the wellknown rarity of a black cornelian; I sent specimens of each to Captain Hall of the royal navy, whose zeal in all scientific researches, I doubt not, has settled this point. I confess myself of opinion that there can be no precise rules drawn from the appearance of the stones before, for that which they will assume after burning, because it depends partly on the degree of heat they undergo. A red cornelian by an intense heat will become white; but as far as my observations go, no stone of the former colour is found so in the mines (excepting jaspers), although a large proportion of them assume it at Neemoodra. Many also after having been burnt show both colours, sometimes distinct and sometimes mixed, and of a pinky hue; while the colour was uniform, or very nearly so, in all which I remarked at the mines. The lightest-coloured stones come out of the fire of a much more delicate and transparent white than before, and often surrounded by a cortex of red, but without any distinct line separating the colours. We were unfortunate in the time of visiting Neemoodra, for all the good stones had been removed, and only a few heaps of refuse left. I saw none imbedded in rock, as flints are in chalk; some nodules on being broken showed a mixture of quartz and agate, and others, in a crust of quartz minutely crystallized on the inner surface, contained a black oxide of iron of a powdery appearance, many pieces of which we found by itself in the gravel. Hematites, chiefly of the brown and green (with red spots) varieties, mocha stones, and jaspers of various colours, are very common here; indeed the last was found in almost every part of the province we visited on our route. Each stone is chipped in the mine to discover its quality, and those which are approved separated from the refuse, heaps of which lay at the mouth of every pit which had been worked. I shall now attempt to give an account of the mode in which the cornelians undergo the action of fire, as derived from the testimony of a respectable native attached to the adaulut at Baroach, who was formerly in the cornelian trade, and had himself superintended the process at Neemoodra; his account is corroborated by our personal observation, and by what we learned on the spot. The stones are brought to this village every evening, spread on the ground, exposed to the sun to prepare them for the further process, and turned every fifteenth day till the time of burning, which is only once a year; one month before the commencement of the monsoon. They are then put into round earthen pots about fourteen inches in diameter, the bottoms of which having been taken out, and the pots inverted (mouth downward), the pieces taken from the bottoms are put inside, and placed over the mouths to prevent the stones falling out: in this state the pots are placed side by side in a trench of indefinite length, but of which the depth and breadth are about two feet, having a layer of five or six inches of dry goat's dung below, and the same above the pots. This is set on fire about eight o'clock in the evening, all the fuel is consumed before daybreak, when the pots are removed from the trench to the open air for the stones to cool, which requires about three hours; after this they are taken out of the pots, piled into heaps, and again chipped for the |