332 Dr. R. I). Thomson on the [May 



the hill the smaller temple or caves are reached. They are 

 three in number, having the face of the rock polished 

 perpendicularly, and some pillars formed on its surface, 

 with several figures represented flying in the clouds. The 

 inferior part of the rock consists of a variegated porphyry, 

 sometimes reddish, and frequently of a yellow tint, the basis 

 consisting of clay, and the inclosed particles of altered 

 quartzoze grains, &c. (No. 4.) 



Remains of painting are still observable, which seems to 

 have originally been of a red colour, but has in some places 

 faded to a purple hue. The upper part of the rock, com- 

 mencing at the roof of the apartments, is composed of 

 amygdaloid, having a wacke basis, and containing cavities 

 filled with rock-crystal, calcareous spar, zeolites, and many 

 other minerals which a careful examination would readily 

 detect. During the rains these caves are filled with water. 

 The whole face of -the hill above these caves is craggy, con- 

 sisting of amygdaloid, porphyry occasionally appearing, and 

 is covered with thick jungle, and climbers ascending the 

 stems of the numerous trees. Among the former we chiefly 

 remark the Dalbergia scandens, and among the latter, the 

 Getonia floribunda, with its bunches of flowers. 



The path, continuing to wind up the declivity, conducts, 

 after passing a fine specimen of the tamarind tree, and of 

 the Asclepias gigantea to the great temple which faces the 

 north. Like the lower antiquities, it is an excavation in 

 the solid rock, with, however, a much greater extension of 

 human art, for the space included within the walls of the 

 large apartment is a square of 43 yards, # and 18 feet in 

 height, supported by three rows of pillars, consisting of 

 rounded fluted capitals and square shafts. The walls are 

 covered with gigantic figures, all of which have beenmutu- 

 lated, with the exception of the colossal representation of 

 the Trimurti fronting the entrance, and one entire masculine 

 form in the recess to the right. The rock is amygdaloid, 

 occasionally assuming a purely porphyritic appearance. The 

 effects of the atmosphere upon the more exposed portions 

 of the rock are obvious, for it is evidently decaying and 

 crumbling to powder, and, combined with the ravages pro- 

 duced by visitors, would, in the lapse of time, prevent the 



* This number is derived from the resident sergeant. I made it forty-six 

 paces. 



