1892.] Address. 59 



further loss and injury, but is made permanently accessible to the 

 student of archaeology and of the history of religions. A full catalogue 

 of the collection will be prepared as soon as Babu P. C. Mukharjca returns 

 from his present tour. 



Site of the Black Hole of Calcutta. — During the year 1891 a con- 

 siderable advance has been made towards accurately determining the 

 topography of Old Fort "William, Calcutta, the result of which has 

 been to disturb the accepted views regarding the site of the Black Hole. 

 Reports of these investigations have appeared from time to time in 

 the daily papers ; but it seems desirable to give a permanent place in 

 the Proceedings of this Society to a short account of a discovery which 

 we owe to the energy of our Philological Secretary, Mr. 0. R. Wilson, 

 to whose kindness I am indebted for the following notes. 



The first attempts in this direction were made nine years ago 

 by Mr. R. R. Bayne, a member of the Asiatic Society, who dis- 

 covered nearly all the foundation walls of the northern portion of 

 the Fort, during the erection of the East India Railway Offices in 

 Clive Street. In February 1883, Mr. Bayne laid before the Asiatic 

 Society the results of his investigations. Unfortunately they suffered 

 under two disadvantages. In the first place, the portions of the old 

 building actually excavated were on the northern and least interesting 

 side of the fort. In the second place, Mr. Bayne had no proper plan to 

 guide him in his conjectures as to the position and nature of the remain- 

 ing portions of the fort. The investigations of 1891 have been carried 

 on under far more favourable conditions. Availing himself of the op- 

 portunity afforded him by the erection of the New Government Offices 

 in Dalhousie Square, Mr. Wilson has succeeded in discovering con- 

 siderable remains of the buildings on the south side of the Fort, where 

 the Black Hole and other places of interest were situated ; and he has 

 had the advantage of being guided in his excavations by a detailed plan 

 of Fort William in 1753, a photographed copy of which was presented 

 to the Asiatic Society by Mr. T. R. Munro. The results of these investi- 

 gations have been so successful that it has been found possible to draw 

 up a plan of the Old Fort, accurately showing its position with reference 

 to the modern houses now standing on or near its site, together with the 

 main features of its principal buildings. Mr. Wilson's investigations 

 began with the discovery of the true dimensions and position of the east 

 gate of the Fort. The gate was found to be much smaller than Mr. 

 Bayne had conjectured it would be. Its centre lies on the central lino 

 of the road in front of Writers' Buildings, which has always been one of 

 the principal streets of the city. In the next place Mr. Wilson has 

 traced out, as far as was possible, the main features of the factory within 



