these
deep pits, which are never far from the stream, and well up on the
slope of the Rewah sandstone, are diggings in the surface lateritic
gravel.
MUJGOAN.
This, as suggested by Franklin, is probably the deserted gorge of a stream. Mr. Medlicott writes :—
The
filling in is certainly peculiar ; the structure is like course
foliation, a network of strings of calc spar, enclosing lamina; and
small lumps of green clay.
In
the only hole I saw they were working the yellow clay from the crevices
of this ; but the men told me that at a greater depth there are
alternating layers of green mud, and of its mixture with calc spar in
which diamonds are found.
Boghin.
The mines of Boghin are thus described by Mr. Medlicott :—
At
the upper end of the gorge of the Boghin river there are two falls of
200 feet each, and there are workings throughout the whole length to
Kalinjer, The principal diggings were at the lower end of the mine
valley ; they were removing some twelve feet of dark brown clayey sand
to get at the boulder bed, in the base of which the diamonds are found,
but both here and below the narrow-gorge the gravel at the surface of
the river bed is much worked. The natives spoke to me of a European
who, some twenty years ago, had made an attempt at mining on a large
scale. His diggings were on the flanks of the limestone hill, some
fifty or one hundred feet over the river, the ore being a jasper gravel
gathered from the deep surface crevices of the limestone. As well as I
could understand their pronunciation, the man's name was Berkeley, but
I have not seen any written account of his experiment; the remains of
his wash pits and picking floors are there still.*
* It is probable that the European referred to is the same as the one mentioned in the extract below.
E
