April 13, 1882] 
NATURE 537 
nation must always be included the buildings they have 
raised, and the duration of these will depend on the 
material chosen for the erection. Is it a necessity of 
modern civilisation that our great edifices should be con- 
structed of materials that are quick to perish? and why 
should it be said of Anglo-Indian architecture, that if the 
English left India, in a century after their departure no 
sign of their occupation would remain ? and in India, as 
Prof. Ball remarks, unlike new countries such as Aus- 
tralia and most parts of America, where knowledge had 
to be obtained by experience, the native temples and 
buildings should have at once furnished the needed in- 
formation as to the durability of the material used in 
them, the only one quality in building material that 
nothing save time is a test for. Most of the buildings 
erected by the British in India are built of brick ; it need 
scarcely be added that all the native temples are of stone, 
and that many exhibit a wonderful mastery over some- 
times difficult material. Very strange is it, too, to learn 
that the resources of India in this respect are so little 
known or appreciated, that at this day advertisements 
daily meet the eye in the Indian papers of Aberdeen 
granites and Italian marbles; and yet how many temples 
are there to be found in India, constructed of native 
granites? and what can surpass the white marble filigree 
screens called jalee, made out of the native marble? 
One splendid screen is thus described by Mr. Keene: 
“ But all the marble work of Northern India is surpassed 
by the monument which Akbar erected over the remains 
of his friend and spiritual counsellor, Shekh Sulim Chisti, 
at Fatipur Sikri (1581 A.D.). In the north-western angle 
of a vast courtyard, 433 feet by 366 feet, is a pavilion 
externally of white marble, surrounded by a deep, pro- 
jecting dripstone, also of white marble, supported by 
marble shafts, crowned by most fantastic brackets, shaped 
like the letter S. The outer screens are so minutely 
pierced, that at a little distance they look like lace, and 
illuminate the mortuary chapel within with a solemn half- 
light which resembles nothing else that I have seen.” 
The varieties of metamorphic rocks suited to building 
purposes in India are very numerous ; besides the granites, 
sandstones and porphyritic gneiss abound. In Mysore,a 
building-stone occurs in the crystalline rock of the dis- 
trict, which can be split into posts twenty feet long, which 
have been used for the support of the telegraph wires; 
and the peculiar adaptability of gneiss to fine carving is 
often to be seen in the rings appended to the drooping 
corners of some of the pagodas, where the rings, the 
links within which are movable, and the projecting cor- 
ners, are carved out of a single block. Among all thc 
formations, the Great Vindhyan sandstones stand promi- 
nent ; these were used in the manufacture of stone im- 
plements; the great memorial monoliths or lats, many of 
which bear the edicts of Asoka, the protector of the early 
Buddhists who reigned about 250 B.C., are made of this 
stone ; some of these are of great size, and on the ex- 
posed surfaces are polished; their carved capitals were 
surmounted with figures of lions or elephants. 
There are many quarries of stone throughout India, 
opened in these Vindhyan rocks. At Dehri, on Son, the 
stone is a compact white sandstone, strong and durable, 
and suscey tible of artistic treatment. Ovher fine quarries 
are at Chunar, from which has come for ages the supply 
to Benares and Calcutta. But perhaps the most impor- 
tant quarries in India are those in the Upper Bhanrers, 
whieh have furnished building material since before the 
Christian era, to the cities of the adjoining plains. Por- 
tions of the Taj at Agra, Akbar’s Palace at Fatipur Sikri, 
the Jamma Masjid at Delhi, have been built from the 
stone of these quarries. The palace of the Rajah of 
Bhartpur, at Deeg, one of the most beautiful edifices in 
India, is constructed of the stone from the same district. 
In it, cupolas rest on slender shafts of two or three inches 
in diameter. Arches are supported on strong, yet graceful 
pillars, and windows are formed of single slabs of store, 
perforated with the most elaborate tracery. 
Among the sandstones of the Damuda series, there are 
several varieties which are suited for building purposes. 
Throughout the Damuda valley, where these rocks occur, 
they have been used from considerable antiquity for the 
construction of temples. Among the finest examples 
known, some Jain temples at Barakar may be men- 
tioned, as they exhibit specimens of wonderful carving 
which has stood well, though the old PAli inscriptions 
on stone of this material in the caves of Sirguja anl 
Chang Bakhar even better testify to the endurance vt 
this rock. 
Laterite has also been used as a building material, but 
it isnot ornamental, and does not weather well. Good 
roofing slate does not appear to exist in India, though in 
the transition rocks of the Kharakpur Hills, slate occurs ; 
it is a partially altered earthy rock, which is readily 
fissile, and with pains and care can be reduced to a thick- 
ness of one-eighth of an inch; it would answer well for 
flagging. 
Extended though this notice of Prof. Ball’s book has 
been, we have been unable therein to glance at more 
than its more prominent features. We doubt not, how- 
ever, that the reader will perceive that it is one of the 
most important contributions yet made to our know- 
ledge of the economic geology of this vast kingdom, the 
prosperity of which so nearly and so intimately concerns 
ourselves. 
THE SCIENCE AND ART DEPARTMENT 
V E have received the following communication from 
a correspondent :— 
There are few Blue Books that better repay careful 
study than the admirable reports of the Science and 
Art Department. The Twenty-eighth Report has recently 
been issued, and is of exceptional interest. Its bulky 
appendices contain, as usual, a mass of valuable sta- 
tistics relating to the diffusion of scientific and artistic 
instruction among the masses ; and in the body of the 
report we find indications of a general scheme of reor- 
ganication, both in the details and the scope of the 
higher scientific education given in the Science Schools 
at South Kensington. This scheme has now taken 
definite shape, and. came into operation with the session 
which has recently opened. It is therefore a fitting 
opportunity briefly to review the work done by the 
Science and Art Department in the scientific instruction 
of the people, and then examine the nature and object of 
the changes that are being made at South Kensington. 
The Great Exhibition of 1851 revealed the fact, that in 
order to compete with the industries of foreign nations, it 
was imperative to have artistic and scientific instruction 
more widely diffused among the middle and lower classes 
of this country. To accomplish this the Science and Art 
Department was formed, and to the soundness of tke 
principles laid down by the Prince Consort and the genius 
and labour of Sir Henry Cole the success of this Depart- 
ment is largely due. This success is not merely to be 
found in the large numbers attending the classes in con- 
nection with the Department; it is to be seen in the 
growth of artistic and scientific knowledge among the 
people, and the application of that knowledge to industrial 
pursuits. A striking testimony of the change, mainly 
wrought by the Department, is to be found in the report 
of the French jurors in the last general Exhibition at Paris. 
This report states : ; 
“English industry in particular, which, from an artistic 
point of view, seemed greatly in arrear at the Exhibiticn 
of 1851, has during the last ten years made amazing 
progress ; and should it continue to advance at the same 
rate we might soon be left behind. This state of things 
