BAKED HOUSES OF INDIA. 3\$ 



III. 



Singular Method of forming Walls and Hoofs of Rural Build- 

 ing, in Indojtan, communicated by M. Legoux de Flaix, 

 Officer of Engineers *. 



1- HC nethod which the Indians have ufed for many years, Advantages of 



of forming their rural buildings, unites folidity, convenience, tuHdTng. ° ° 



and Miblefomenefs to economy, and facility of execution. 



Houfes ronttfJicled in this manner have alfo the advantage Refifts fire -ani 



of Toeing abu-utely Cafe from conflagration, and of refitting inUlKiations • 



ev^'i ie' molt /doiert inundations. 



In a fnntry where ftone is fca^ce, the rich build their 



hoi^< a'!) brick's which in many refpe<5ts are preferable to 



ftoni • but poor people, fuchasthofe employed in agriculture, 



canro» :n to that expence, even in India, where labour and 



materials are fo cheap. 



The habitations of villagers in moil parls of the globe 



are bu<!t with earth wall?, in India they are lik^wife covered 



with terraces of earth, and it is evident, that buildings formed 



with both walls and roofs of earth muft neceffarily be free 



from danger of fire. 



To prove that buildings of this conduction are equally 



fafe from inundations, it is fufficient to (late, that on the 



banks of the Ganges and Indus, (rivers of vaft magnitude 



both in their extent and their courfe, and whofe great bodies 



of water caufe the molt, deftructive efiecTs in their floods,) 



thefe houfes ftand uninjured, though fometimes ifolaled in the 



midft of immenfe inundations for fifteen or twenty days. It 



is extremely probable, that houfes built of ftone or brick 



would not (land this great force of water equally well. 



To form houfes in this manner, the foundations of the The earth dug 



outfide and partition walls are dug up, which are fometimes from the *° un " 

 r c , / - r x j j l • i . oat""" is pound- 



irom five to leven /eet deep, and always proportioned to the e d fine, 



heighth intended to be given to the walls. The excavated 

 earth is expofed till it becomes perfectly dry; if it is of a fat 

 or argillaceous nature, it is carried to a place, prepared for 

 the purpofe, where it may be pounded into a duft, and pro- 

 perly prepared for ufe; when in this flate, it is mixed with a and mixed with, 



eoarfe fand or 

 * Sonninu^s Journal, II, 394- line gravel, 



5 third 



