from
the hills of sandstone and limestone through which the river has
recently passed, and Voysey remarks the persistency of the same kind of
conÂglomerate at all the mines.
GANI-COULOUR = THE MODERN KOLLUR.*
This
locality appears to be identical with Kollur, 24 miles west of Purtial
on the Kistna. Tavernier's route, a seven days' journey eastwards from
Golconda, can be traced on modern maps and several of the stages
identified. On the last day he crossed a river (the Kistna) and found
himself at the mines.
Capt. Burton (l.c.) appears, therefore, to have been misled when he placed Gani-Coulour on the Bhima, to the west of Golconda.
Tavernier's account of the mine at this locality is as followsf:—
It
is not above a hundred years since this mine was discovered by a
countryman, who, digging in a piece of ground to sow millet, found
therein a pointed stone that weighed above twenty-five carats. He, not
knowing what the stone was, but seeing it glisten, carried it to
Golconda, where, as it happened well for him, he met with one that
traded in diamonds. The merchant informing himself of the place where
the stone was found, admired to see a jewel of that bigness, not having
seen before one that weighed ten or twelve carats. However, his report
made a great noise in the country, inasmuch that the moneyed men in the
town set themselves to work, and causing the ground to be searched they
found, and still do find, bigger stones and in greater quantity than in
any other mine, for
* Written Garrer by Dieulafait, "Diamonds and Precious Stones." London : Blackie. 1874. Gani is, however, merely a prefix meaning Kan-i or " mine of."
-r "Travels," chap. xii.
