with
glare and heat, the paucity of rain and the absence of good water, life
must be very difficult to live. The hard rock to which the borings have
reached, after passing through much soft breccia, is of course the
underlying gneiss, which crops up at Puliyadiyirakkam on the Ceylon
mainland and in the island of Ramesvaram and which is conspicuous in
the beds of the Aruvi Aru and other rivers which enter the sea near
Mannar. At present the supply of fresh water for the residents of
Mannar is obtained from a couple of wells dug in the sand, about two
miles distant, the rain water caught in the old Fort reservoir being of
veTy small account. A plentiful supply of good water would make all the
difference in the world, and we trust Government will not grudge a
substantial vote, say Ri.ooo, instead of first R250, and then R120,
which have been allowed. Many a convict in our jails has better
prospects of life and health than persons condemned to live at Mannar,
and as we are so careful about the health and life of our prisoners, we
ought to extend at least equal privileges to honest people condemned to
live at a place on which nature has largely laid her ban in the shape
of drought and fever.
THE GOLD REEFS OF MYSORE..
We
have received from the Mysore Government a copy of Mr. Foot's report on
the gold-bearing region of Mysore. The following notice in the Pioneer fairly indicates the leading characteristics of the report:—
Mr. R. 15. Foote, Superintendent of the Geological Survey, has completed Ms survey of the-
auriferous tracts in Mysore, and the report he has submitted to the
Dewan will be read with great interest. The mines of Mysore have not
hitherto turned out the El Dorado which was expected six or eight years
ago, and capitalists are beginning to have an uneasy feeling that their
money might have been better invested where, though the promise was
less alluring, the fulfilment was more safe. To such as these Mr.
Foote's report will be to a certain extent re-assuring. He says nothing
of monster nuggets or "lumps of gold," of which doubtless many
imaginative shareholders have dreamt, and he notes several instances
where surveyors who went before him have given exaggerÂated or utterly
unfounded accounts of the mineral wealth of certain districts; but, on
the other hand, he found many workings where the reefs were fine and of
very great promise. Generally his report may be said to bring out two
things; first, that prospecting must in most cases be carried to a
considerable depth before the value of the mines can be accurately
gauged ; and secondly, that the whole of the auriferous areas are
deserving of close survey, as even the best of them are imperfectly
known, and of what was known to the old miners in former generations
much has been forgotten. In Mr. Foote's tour, which was for some reason
or other very hurried, he chanced on no less than five sets of old
workings unknown to previous surveyors, and he suspects that many
others exist in the wild and jungly tracts which abound in the hilly
and mountainous parts of the country. Although the work of
gold-prospecting left Mr. Foote little leisure to devote to any
non-metallic minerals, he took some interesting notes on such as
incidentally came in his way. One very beautiful variety of
granite-gneiss eminently fitted for cutting and polishing on a large
scale, he found about two miles east of Banavar. The rock he declares
to be the handsomest he has seen in Mysore, and monoliths of large size
could easily be quarried. Again, the hills above Seringapatain are
traversed by a great dyke porphyry of a warm' brown colour. The stone
in Mr. Foote's opinio". is unequalled in Southern India, and, if highly
polished, would rival the highly-prized porphyries of olden days. The
dyke is fully a mile in length and of great thickness. Beds of marble
of good quality were also found near Holgere. Mr. Foote, however, met
with nothing to support the opinion to which
