[24] In Jerdon's "Mammals of India," Roorkee, 1867, p. 304, however, I find that it is stated that the bison do ravage the fields of the ryots, but Mr. Sanderson has no mention of their doing so, and he had the best opportunities for observation.

CHAPTER VII.

GOLD.

Gold mines are as uncertain as women, and yet from either it seems impossible to keep away. Perhaps it is this very uncertainty which constitutes the chief charm of both. But, however that may be, it is certain that about gold in general, whether visible or prospective, there is such a degree of attractiveness that, as the Kanarese proverb puts it, if gold is to be seen even a corpse will open its mouth; and I feel sure as I write, that in this chapter at least I can count not only on attention, but on a general attitude of expectancy in the mind of the reader. And from one point of view he will be fairly satisfied, for the history of gold mining in Mysore has quite a romantic cast, and in the hands of a skilful novelist, there might be extracted from it much literary capital. The foremost fact indeed which I have to give has almost a sensational flavour, and at first sight seems a mere dream. We often read of fields of golden grain, but that corn should ever, by any process of nature, have on its ears grains of gold, seems beyond belief. And yet the fact of grains of gold being found on the ears of the rice plants is probably the very earliest tradition connected with gold, and it is not improbable that the circumstance may have been one of the means of calling attention to the existence of gold in Mysore. An account of this tradition is to be found in the "Selections from the Records of the Mysore Government,"[[25]] and from them it appears that Lieutenant John Warren, when he was employed in surveying the eastern boundary of Mysore in 1800, was told by a Brahman that "In prosperous years when the gods favoured the Zillah of Kadogi (a small village on the west bank of the Pennar river, Hoskote Talook, 15 miles from Bangalore) with an ample harvest now and then grains of gold were found on the ears of the paddy (rice plants) grown under the tank lying close to the north of that village." And in this connection I may mention that, when visiting the Kolar mines last January, I found, in the course of a conversation with the head man of the village of Ooregum, that he was aware of this tradition, and that grains of gold were said to have been seen on the rice plants at a village about fifteen miles distant from his own. The explanation of this is extremely simple, as the rice plants are usually grown in nurseries and transplanted in bunches of several plants, after which the fields are flooded, and in heavy floods (and this accounts for the gold having been found in the years which are prosperous from the abundant rain) the plants would often be quite submerged. With the water no doubt came grains of gold, which were deposited on the rice plants, and as these grew, the grains of gold would naturally rise with them, and thus often be found adhering to the roughly-coated grain.

After the attention of Lieutenant Warren was called to the subject, he seems to have taken some trouble in investigating it, and having heard a vague report that gold had been found in the earth somewhere near a small hill about nine miles east of Budiakote, offered a reward for information regarding this, and shortly afterwards a ryot of the village offered to show him the place, which was close to his village. He visited the spot in question on February 17th, 1802, "when the women of the village were assembled, and, each being provided with a small broom and vaning basket, and hollow board to receive the earth, they went to a jungle on the west of the village. Here they entered some small nullahs, or rather breaks in the ground, and removing the gravel with their hands, they swept the earth underneath into their vaning baskets, by the help of which they further cleared it of the smaller stones and threw it into the hollow board above mentioned. Having thus got enough earth together, they adjourned to a tank and placed the hollow boards containing the earth in the water, but just deep enough for it to overflow when resting on the ground, and no more. Then they stirred the earth with the hand, but keeping it over the centre of the board, so that the metal should fall into the depression by its own weight, and the earth wash over the edges. After a few minutes' stirring, they put the metallic matter thus freed of earth into a piece of broken pot, but only after examining it for gold, which they did by inclining the board and passing water over the metallic sediment which adhered to it. They thus drove the light particles before the water, leaving the heavier metal behind just at the edge where it could easily be seen, however small the quantity." Lieutenant Warren, having afterwards heard that gold was extracted from mines near Marikoppa, three miles from Ooregum, visited four of the mines, the descent into which was made by means of small foot holes which had been made in their sides. The first was two feet in breadth and four in length with a depth of about thirty feet, and in distance fifty feet (of galleries I presume), the others were from thirty to forty-five feet deep. "The miners extracted the stones (how we are not informed) and they were passed from hand to hand in baskets by the miners who were stationed at different points for the purpose of banking the stones. The women then took them to a large rock, and pounded them to dust. The latter was then taken to a well and washed by the same process as that used when washing the earth for gold, when about an equal quantity of gold was found to that procured from an equal quantity of the auriferous earth."

The only people, writes Lieutenant Warren, who devote their time to searching-for gold are Pariahs, who work as follows. "When they resolve on sinking a mine, they assemble to the number of ten or twelve from different villages. Then they elect a Daffadar, or head man, to superintend the work, and sell the gold, and they subscribe money to buy lamp oil, and the necessary iron tools, then partly from knowledge of the ground, and partly from the idea they have, that the tract over which a peacock has been observed to fly and alight, is that of a vein of gold, they fix on a spot and begin to mine."

Such, then, was the condition of gold mining in Mysore about the end of the last and the beginning of this century, but in ancient times mining was carried on by the natives to very considerable depths, and I am informed by Mr. B. D. Plummer, who has had ten years' experience of mines at Kolar, and worked the Mysore and Nundydroog mines, that the old native workings went down to a depth of about 260 feet. These, which were all choked up, were followed down to the bottom, and valuable lodes were found at about 150 to 260 feet. Nothing was found in the old native workings, but remains of old chatties (earthenware pots) and the wooden props put in to secure the sides. The native workings, in the opinion of Captain Plummer, were evidently carried on with skill and efficiency, and appear to be of great antiquity. Large quantities of water were found, requiring pumping machinery working day and night for its removal. How the natives in olden times got rid of the water is not known. It is supposed that they must have done so by chatties, and by hand, with the aid of large numbers of people. As no native iron tools[[26]] were found in the cases of the two above-mentioned mines, it is evident that they were deliberately abandoned, either from excess of water in them, or some unknown cause. As the lodes they worked at the depths they reached were rich, it is probable that the miners could no longer contend with the difficulty of removing the large quantities of water. I am informed by Mr. Plummer that the main lodes where the natives have formerly worked have, in nearly every case, proved successful. Mr. Plummer has examined other districts in the province, extending more than 100 miles north of Mysore city, and thinks that there is a very large mining future for the Mysore country. I am informed by one of the mine managers that from the quantity of charcoal found in the old native workings, it is probable that the natives first of all burnt the rock so as to make it the more easy of extraction, just as they now burn granite rock in order the more easily to split off the stone.

As the facts connected with these mines were brought very fully to the notice of the Government at such an early date, it at first sight seems strange that we have to skip over a period of about seventy years till we again meet, in the "Selections" previously quoted from, any further notice of the mines; but the neglect of them was evidently owing to the similar neglect of coffee and other industries, which might have been pushed forward at a much earlier date, and most certainly would have been, had the Government taken pains to see that the information so frequently obtained was published in an available and readable form, instead of being buried in the various offices of the State. That more efforts were not made in this direction was probably owing to the fact that the Government officers did not perceive the widespread effect that the introduction of European capital would have on the agriculture of the country, and, consequently, on the finances of the State—a subject referred to in my introductory chapter, and to which I shall again allude in the chapter on Coorg—while they were under the erroneous impression that Europeans would probably be a cause of annoyance to the Government and the people. We find a characteristic survival of the last idea in the "Selections," and in Clause X. of the conditions under which, in 1873, the first leave to mine was granted by the Government of Mysore, it is declared that, "In the event of the grantee causing annoyance or obstruction to any class of the people, or to the officers of Government, the chief commissioner reserves the power of annulling the mining right thus granted." But such apprehensions, I need hardly say, have long since passed away, and certainly within my long experience they never existed in Southern India in the case of the planters who, as a body, have always been encouraged by the State, and have always got on well with it and the people, though, of course, as in all countries, there are occasionally individuals who cannot bring themselves into harmony with any person, or condition of things.