Passing over much detail of a more or less interesting character, we quote as follows:—
But
if the diamond, amber, coal, and petroleum are absent from our rock
formations, happily there can be no question as to either the quality
or the quantity of our mineral carbon in the shape of plumbago, of
which indeed, in the form most valuable for the manufacture of
metal-melting crucibles, Ceylon seems to have as much a natural
monopoly as she has of first-class cinnamon in the vegetable world.
There are, no doubt, vast deposits of graphite in North America,
especially in Canada, but the mineral seems to be generally diffused in
rock from which it is difficult and expensive (labour being scarce and
dear) to separate the >mall particles. Graphite, although rare in a
form economically valuable, seems very widely distributed over the face
of the earth. In India plumbago has been found in a large number of
places, and has been the subject of many experiments and much
discussion, but the results have been hitherto disappointing. It
generally app-ars sparingly in very quartzy rock, and in heavy
ferruginous gneiss. The mineral is deficient in lustre, contains much
iron, and one specimen gave 35 per cent of lime. Lime is, perhaps, even
more fatal to the value of plumbago than iron, and although graphite
may occur in the magnesian limestones of Ceylon (I never heard of but
one instance), it is quite mmifest that digging in the dolomite need
never be resorted to, the mineral being so plentiful in our quartzy
gneiss, where the only enemy encountered, and that, happily, not very
frequently, is iron. Like some other adversaries, this one sometimes
appears in guises the most radiantly beautiful, in the present case as
pyrites varying from splendidly crystallized masses, with facets
polished like finest silver, and again simulating auriferous treasures
by putting on the most glorious colourings of gold, shading away to a
lovely and delicate green, indicative, this tint, it is supposed, of
the presence of sulphate of copper.
*
This auriferous coloured pyrites is appropriately named in Sinhalese diya rat-ran, or
" water gem-gold," the recognition of water as the agent to which the
formation and its brilliant colours are largely due being, curiously
enough, in perfect accord with the conclusions of the most advanced
geological scientists.
To
Mr. Williams, Acting Government Agent of the North-Western Province, I
am indebted for a collection of interesting specimens from Polgola on
the road to Dambulla, showing how plumbago is associated with and forms
round a nucleus of crystalline or semi-opaque and sometimes
garnetiferous quartz (the position of the minerals being, I am told,
occasionally reversed), and quite a number of pieces of rock wViich the
non-scientific might well be excused for regarding as coated and
permeated with brilliant golden ore. These may be regarded as the
flowers of the subterrannean regions where plumbago is mined. I am
bound to state, however, that the brilliancy of iron pyrites has no
effect in modifying the inimical feelings with which those connected
with the plumbago enterprise regard the mineral, while they talk with
disapproval and disgust of the yabora=(a)va iron, bora dross:
iron dross, the hard ironlike form of plumbago; and anyone desirous of
procuring specimens will be, made heartily welcome to what in the eyes
of the plumbago dealer is associated with a rocky inferior and
unsaleable product. But truly the pure soft mineral itself, in its
various forms of crystallization, the most prevalent being a radiatin»
star-like arrangement, and its variation of sparkling colours from
steel grey to plates of jet black, may be regarded as a veritable
"thing of bnautv." A collection of first-class lumps, each highly
polished and lustrous, intended for shipment to Germany, which could be
seen at -Mr. VV. A. Fernando's store recently, was certainly a striking
sight. In connection with this collection of silvery masses, Mr.
Fernando showed us specimens of a dark-coloured variety, of needle-like
formation, which he said he had been requested by his customers to make
up separately, as the ordinary mills could not easily grind that panic-
