The
vertical shafts, though not considered to afford evidence of the
highest degree of mining skill, offer a problem difficult of solution.
They are, even when in solid quartz, sometimes 70 feet deep, with
smooth sides and quite plumb; what the tools were which enabled the
miners to produce such work in hard dense quartz no one appears to be
able to suggest. The fragments of stone obtained from these various
mines were pounded with hand mullers, the pounding places being still
seen, and the pounded stone was then, it is believed, washed in a
wooden dish and treated with mercury.
The
Korumbas or gold washers, who are admitted to be skilful, do not regard
the gold as being derived from the reefs, though they generally select
spots near the reefs for washing. Their earnings amount to from two to
three annas (3d. to 4-1/2d.) a day, but it is possible
that at an earlier period of the industry it may have been more
profitable, since Mr. Brough Smyth says that the present condition of
the country is, that it is covered with " tailings," and corresponds to
that of an abandoned Australian washing. Still it is the case that:—
On
washing a few dishes of the surface soil anywhere a few streaks of very
fine gold will be found. In the vicinity of the reefs rather heavy gold
is got by sluicing ; and if a suitable spot be selected the native
miners will obtain, even by their methods, sufficient gold to
remunerate them for their labour.
I
cannot quote here a tithe of the evidence which exists as to the former
wealth of Southern India, but the following extract from a letter by
Mr. E. B. Eastwick will be read with interest. Mr. Eastwick quotes from
Dr. Burnell:—
