MINDRA, in a Hindu temple, is the cella. MINERALOGY is a science which vleals with the description and classification of the chem ically distinct substances which form the material of the globe. Mineral substances, useful in the arts, and applicable for personal ornament, are very numerous in South-Eastern Asia, and under their respective headings will be found noticed,—agate, alum, amber, amethyst, antimony, arsenic, asbestos, avanturine, barytes, beryl, bismuth, bloodstone, building stones, cairngorm, cake dony, cat's - eye, cinnamon stone, clays, coal, copper ores, coral, carnelian, corundum, diamond, earths, emerald, fire-clay, fuller's earth, galena, garnet, gold, graphite, gypsum, iron, jacynth, jade, kankar, kaolin, kyanite, lapis-lazuli, lead, lime, limestones, lithographic stone, manganese, marbles, meerschaum, mercury, mica, millstones, molybdenum, mother - of - pearl, ochres, onyx, pearls, peat, petroleum, plaster of Paris, platinum, prase, plumbago, pumice, red earth, rock-crystal, ruby, salt, saltpetre, sapphire, selenite, serpentine, silver, slate, soda, spinel, sulphur, talc, tin, topaz, tourmaline, turquoise, zinc, iarcon.
Mineralogists arrange these substances accord ing to their chemical composition, as those con sisting exclusively of native elements ; also the compounds of arsenoid metals, the compounds of metals with halogen elements, compounds of elements with oxygen, and organic compounds.
The result of the study of rocks and of their component minerals has been to show that the great mass of the earth's crust is formed of aggregations of minerals belonging to a very small number of the types that have been deter mined by the mineralogist. The ores furnish metals essential to the needs and happiness of man. Numerous minerals furnish products im portant in daily life. - Materials for construc tion and architectural ornamentation, for pig ments, mordants, and bleaching processes, the phosphates for manures, the alkalies, and the materials for the manufacturing of acids, are all dependent on the mineral resources of the earth.
Of the above, the coal seams, the salt mines, the ores of iron, tin, galena, gold, antimony, and salt are the most valuable.
Valuable tin ores exist in the Tenasserim Pro vinces, and still more valuable beds of salt in the Panjab. Coal abounds, and in several parts of British India iron ores occur plentifully, but are worked chiefly by the natives in the rudest and most unthrifty manner. Galena and copper ores
occur, but not in large quantities, and gold is found in many places, but has not been to any extent worked with scientific skill. Of the pre cious stones, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and others are found in Ceylon, Independent Burma, Siam, and in countries N.W. of the Himalaya. In British India the other stones now procured for jewellery are diamonds, garnets, agates, cornelians, and other forms of quartz. The coarse sapphire of corundum is found in some places associated with jade. Mewar is rich in metals. Mysore has iron ore and corundum in abundance.
Baluchistan is rich in mineral productions ; copper, lead, iron, antimony, sulphur, and alum abound in various parts, while Common salt is too plentiful to be advantageous to vegetation. On the high road from Kalat to Cutch Gandava is a range of hills from which red salt is extracted. Sulphur and alum are to be had at the same place. Ferrier saw quantities of white and grey marble in the mountains to the westward of Nooshky, but it does not seem to be at all prized by the Baluch. Marbles abound in S.E. Asia.
Chinese authors assert that there are between four and five hundred mountains in the empire which produce copper, and that there are upwards of three thousand which produce iron. Gold and silver mines abound, but the policy of that Government discourages their being worked. The mines of the province of Kwei-chu supply all the mercury used for the manufacture of vermilion, and there are mines producing lead, tin, and calamine scattered all over the country. Coal was used very early in China as fuel; it is mentioned by Du Halde as black stones dug out of the mountains, which stones burn when kindled, and are used by many persons in preference to wood, of which there is abundance. It is found in the north and in the south, and probably might be had in nearly every province in the empire. At Shanghai it has been used on board Government steamers ; in this district it resembles cannel coal. It is to be had also at Canton. Le Compte assures us that there is not any country better supplied with coal than China, and lie particu larizes the provinces of Shan - si, Shen-si, and China, i. 424; 111 E. J. I?.