338 



NATURE 



[Aug. 26, 1875 



temples of Orissa iron was used in large masses as beams or 

 girders in roof- work in the thirteenth century.^ 



The influence of the discovery of iron on the progress of art 

 and science cannot be over-estimated. India well repaid any 

 advantage which she may have derived from the early civilised 

 communities of the West if she were the first to supply them 

 with iron and steel. 



An interesting social problem is afforded by a comparis-^n of 

 the relative conditions of India and this country at the present 

 t'me. Indi.-i, from thirty to forty centuries ago, was skilled in 

 the manufacture of iron and cotton goods, which minufactures, 

 in less than a century, have done s > much for this country. It 

 is true that in India coal is not so abundant o' so univer- ally 

 distributed as in this country. Yet, if we look s*ill further 

 to the East, China hid probibly knowledge of the use of 

 metals as soon as India, and moreover had a boundless store 

 of iron and coal. Baron Richthofen, who has visited and 

 described some of the coal-fields of China, believes that one 

 province alone, that of Southern Shanshi, could supply the world 

 at its present rate of consumption for several thousand years. 

 The coal is near the surface, and iron abounds with it. Ma^co 

 Polo tells us that conl was universally used a- fuel in the parts 

 of China which he visited towards the end of the fourteenth 

 centur)', and from other sources we have reison to believe it was 

 used there as fuel 2,cx)0 years ago. But what progress has 

 China made in the last ten centuries? A great future is un- 

 doubtedly in store for that country ; but can the race who now 

 dwell there develop its resources, or must they await the aid of 

 an Aryan race ? Or is anything more necessary than a change 

 of institutions, which might come unexpectedly, as in Japan ? 



The art of extracting metals from the ore was practised at a very 

 early date in this country. The existence long ago of tin mines in 

 Cornwall, which are so often spoken of by classical writers, is 

 well known to all. That iron was also extracted from the ore 

 by the ancient Biitons is most probable, as it was largely used 

 for many purposes by them bef re the Roman conqu st. The 

 Romans worked iron expensively in the Weald of Kent, as we 

 assume from the large h'^aps of slag containing Roman coins 

 which still remain there. The Romans always availed themselves 

 of the mineral wealth of the countries which they conquered, 

 and their mining operations were often cirried out on the 

 largest scale, as in Spain, for instance, where a? many as forty 

 thou'^and miners were regularly emploj'ed in the mines at New 

 Carthage. « 



Coal, which was used for ordinary purposes in England as 

 early as the ninth century, does not appear to have been largely 

 used for iron smelting until the eighteenth century, though a 

 patent was granted for smelting iron with coal in the year 

 161 1.' The use of charcoal for that purpose was not given up 

 in'il the beginning of this century, since which pe iod an 

 enormous increase in the mining and metallurgical indu tries has 

 tnk' n place ; the quantity of coal raised in the United Kingdom 

 in 1873 having amounted to 127 million tons, and the quantity 

 of pig iron to upwards of 6| million tons. 



The early building energy of the world was chiefly spent on 

 the erection of tomb-, temples, and palaces. 



While, in Egypt, as we have seen, the art of building in stone 

 1 ad 5,000 years ago reache 1 the greatest perfection, so in Meso- 

 potamia the art of building with brick, the only available material 

 in that country, was in an equally advanced state some ten 

 centuries later. That buildings of such a material have lasted to 

 this day shows how well the work was done ; their ruinous con- 

 dition even now is owing to their having served as quarries for 

 the last three or four thou;>and years, so that Xh^ name of 

 Nebuchadnezzar, apparently one of the greatest builders of 

 ancient times, is as common on the bricks of many modern 

 towns in Persia as it was in old times in Babylon. Ihe labour 

 required to construct the brick temples and palaces of Chaldsea 

 a:i.l Assyria must have been enormous. The mound of Koyunjik 

 alone contained 14I million tons, and represents the labour of 

 10,000 men for twelve years. The palace of Sennacheiib, 

 which stood on this mounU, was probabiy the largest ever built 

 by any one m, march, containing as it d.d more than two miles of 

 walls, panelled with scul^'turcd alabaster slabs, and twenty- 

 sc\en portals, formed by colossal bulls and sphinxes.'* 



I'he pyramidal temples of Chaldsea aie not less remarkable 



I Hunter's " Orissa," vol. i. p. 298. 

 ^ Strabo, bk. iii. c. li, § 10. 



3 Percy's " Iron and Steel," p. 88z. 



4 Layard's " Nineveh and Babylon," p. 589. 



for the labour bestowed on them, and far stirpass tbe buildings of 

 Assyria in the excellence of their brickwork. 



The practice of building great pyramidal temples seems to 

 have passed eastwards to India and Bu-mah, where it apoears in 

 buildings of a later date, in Buddhist topes and pagodxs ; mar- 

 vels of skill in masonry, and far surpassing the old brick mounds 

 of Chaldrea in richness of design and in workmanship. Even 

 so late as this century a king of Burmah began to build a brick 

 temple of the old type, the largest building, accoriing to Eer- 

 gusson, which has been attempted since the Pyramids.^ 



The mere magnitude of many of the-e works is not so wonder- 

 ful when we take into account the abundance of labour which 

 those rulers could command. Countries were depopulated, and 

 their inhabitants carried oflf and made to labour for the con- 

 querors. The inscription"? of Assyria describe minutely the spoils 

 of war and the number of captives ; and in Egypt we have fre- 

 quent mention made of works being execu'ed by the labour o*" 

 captive peoples. Herodotus tells us that as many as 360,000 

 men were employed in building one palace for Sennacherib.* 

 At the same time it m\ist not be for::otten that the very character 

 of the multitude would demind from some one the skill and 

 brain to organise and direct, to design aid plan the work. 



It would be surprising if men who were capable of undertak- 

 ing and successfully completing unproductive wor'fs of such mag- 

 nitude did not als-) employ their povers on works of a more 

 useful class. Tia':es s'ill remain of s'tch works; enough to 

 show, when compared with the scanty records of the times whxh 

 have come down to us, fiat the prosperity of s'lc*^! countries as 

 Egyp*^^ and Mesopotamia was not wholly dependen.t on war and 

 conquest, but that the reve-se was more likely the case, and that 

 the natural capabilities of tho-e countries w;re g/eatly enlarged 

 by the construction of useful wo-ks of such magnitude as to 

 equal, if not in some cases surpass, those of mod.era times. 



Egypt was probably far better irrigated in the days of the 

 Pharaohs than it is now. To those unacquain red with the difii- 

 culties which must be met with and overcome "tiefore a successful 

 system of irrigation cin be carried out, even ia countries in which 

 the physical condition? are favourable, it may appear that nothing 

 more is required than an adequate supply of unskilled labour.. 

 Far more than this was require 1 : the Egyptians had some know 

 ledge of surveying, for Eustathius says they recorded their 

 marches on maps ; '^ but such knowledge was probably in those 

 days very limited, and it required no or /inary grasp of mind to 

 see the utility of such extensive works a-; were cirried out in 

 Egypt and Mesopotamia, and, having S'j-n the utility, to success- 

 fully design and execute them. To late one in Egypt — Take 

 Mopiis, of which the remains have beeji explored by M. Linant, 

 w^as a reservoir made by one of th:^ Pi araohs, and supplied by the 

 flood waters of the Nile, Ic was 150, square miles in extent, and 

 was retained by a bank or dam f/o yards wide anl 10 high, 

 which can be traced for a distance f jf thirteen miles. Tiiis reser- 

 voir was capable of irrigating I, too square miles of country.* 

 No work of this class has been undertaken on so vast a scale 

 since, even in these days of grea £ works. 



I'he prosperity of Egypt was in sj great a measure dependent 

 on its great river, tha'. we sh n jld expect that the Egyptian;, a 

 people so advanced in art and science, would at an eirly period 

 have made themselves acqur. jnted wi'.h its r^^itne. We knoy 

 that they c .refuUy registered the height of thj annual rise of its 

 waters ; such regist-.ri still r t nain inscribed on the rocks on the 

 banks of the Nile, with th,e name of the king in whose rei^n 

 they were imade.^ . The p topic of Mesopotamia were equally 

 observant of the re^hiie of ilieir great rivers, and took advantage 

 in designing their canals o f the diff'erent periods in the rising of 

 the waters of the Tigris fmd Euphrates. A special officer was 

 appointed in Babylon, w hose duty it was to measure the rise of 

 the river ; and he is m Mentioned in an inscription found in the 

 ruins of that city, as re tording the height of the water in the 

 temple of Bel.^ The Assyrians, who had a far more difficult 

 country to deal with. Owing to iti rocky and uneven surface, 

 sliowed even greater sjiill than the Babylonians iu forming their 

 canals, tunnellmg thrc mgh rock, aad building dams of masonry 

 across the Euphrates. WhiL the greater number of these canals 

 iu Egypt and Mesopotamia were made for the purpose of irriga- 

 tion, others seem to have been made to serve at the same time 



* Fergusson's "^History of Architecture," vol. ii. r, 523. 

 ^ Rawlinson's " Herodotus," vol. i. p. 3^9, 2iid edit. 



3 Ibid. vol. ii p, 278, 2ad edit. 



* M. Liuant's '" M6moire sur ie lac Moeris." j 



5 Lepsius' " Discoveries in Egypt, &c.," p. 268. 



6 Smith's " Assyrii0.n Di^overies," pp 395-7, 2iid edit. 



