3. South-Western Bengal, or the Chutia Nagpur Province.
4. North-West Provinces, including the Himalayas and Punjab.
1. Central Provinces.—In
the extensive region known as the Central Provinces, and throughout a
considerable portion of which metamorphic rocks prevail, gold-bearing
rocks and their natural product, auriferous sands, are probably widely
distributed ; but on this subject little has been published, and at
present I am only able to refer to a Paper by Colonel Ouseley,* and to
my own notes which apply to the district of Sambalpur, where I made
inquiries regarding gold in connection with those which I instituted in
the same locality in reference to diamonds.
The
following remarks I have already published,! but I reproduce them here
only slightly modified, as they serve to epitomize all that is at
present known on the subject.
Gold
in all probability occurs pretty generally throughout those portions of
the district of Sambalpur in which metamorphic rocks prevail. So far as
I have been able to gather from personal observation, the washers
confine themselves to the beds of the Ma-hanadi and Ebe : but in the
rains they are said to leave the larger rivers and wash in the small
jungle -streams.
In the Ebe, below Tahood, I saw a party of gold-washers encamped on the sand. The places where
* "Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal," 1839, vol. viii. t " Records of the Geological Survey of India," vol. x. p. 190 ; and "Jungle Life in India," p. 529.
