Prof. Royle’s Lecture on the Great E'rhibition of 1851. 71 
form of loose bundles and placing them upon a broad clay plat- 
form, which is on a level with, and surrounds, the neck of a 
boiler sunk into the ground. They are then arranged in circular 
layers, one above the other, around a bamboo tube, which is 
kept upright by means of transverse supporters projecting from it, 
the whole forming a conical pile that rises to a height of five or 
six feet above the boiler. : 
The fire is kindled in the excavation below, and as the ebulli- 
tion of the water proceeds, the steam diffuses itself through the 
mass of the cloths above, swelling by its high temperature the 
threads of the latter. The operation of steaming is commenc 
that they have lon ssessed, 
the several salts whieh tae long been employed as mordants. 
That the art of dyeing was early practised we have proof in 
the fact mentioned by Pliny, that flags of various colors were 
displayed by the Indians. It has been supposed that the Hin- 
doos may have learned this art from the Egyptians, but the prob- 
