20 



The weight of this enormous mass of iron was just one ton. Its 

 dimensions : height, 4£t. lin. ; width at shoulders, 2ft. 7in., 

 tapering down to ISin. at base ; thickness at shoulders, 9in., at 

 base, 8jin. 



The manner in which he was led to the discovery of this 

 stramge relic of past times might he thought be of interest to 

 members of the Society. A large mound existed many years ago 

 to the north of Adelaide Crescent at Hove. Over this as a boy he 

 used to run. For generations it had been merely a grass-covered 

 excrescence on an otherwise level plain, but coming home on 

 leave in 1862 the author was surprised to learn that this mound 

 had been opened and objects of great antiquarian value been 

 disinterred from it. These are now in the Brighton Museum. 

 On returning to India his work took him to the Semroul 

 River, about 90 miles south of Allahabad. Here a large 

 mound attracted his attention, and recalled to him the 

 one on which he had so often played near far-away Brighton. 

 Although much larger its form was the same. He longed 

 much to open it, but " that eternal want of pence," which 

 Tennyson says, "vexes public men," blocked the way. The con- 

 tractors, however, who were then making the Jubbulpore railway, 

 which now crosses the river just where the mound stood, were in 

 want of ballast. The author had noticed loose bricks lying 

 among the vegetation which covered the mound. He induced 

 the contractor's engineer to open the mound, and no less than 

 250,000 cubic feet of well-burned ancient bricks were taken from 

 it. Carved and plainly dressed stone work was also unearthed, 

 and finally this huge piece of wrought iron. Among the debris 

 coins of the Kushan dynasty, minted between the years a.d. 

 30 and 120, were also brought to ligtt. 



Various were the explanations offered as to the use and pur- 

 pose of this strange mass or vessel of iron. The natives said it 

 was a god, a brother engineer said it was a striker for coining 

 money. An account of it was printed in the Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society for May, 1865, but none of its members had pro- 

 pounded a solution of the puzzle. As far as the author could 

 learn no other similar piece of iron had been found in India. Ko 

 iron work of any description besides this was found among the 

 ruins, although iron abounds in the neighbourhood. A celt made 

 from the black or magnetic oxide of iron was found not very far 

 from the mound. Prof. Valentine Ball says this is the only 

 chipped implement known made from that substance. It is now 

 in the Asiatic Society's Museum in Calcutta. Stone implements 



