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.