76 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



Much, lias been done in the matter, however, by Mr, King, in 

 his several masterly works on precious stones ; but the mode of 

 treatment here adopted differs from his in being primarily based 

 on our present knowledge of the mineral resources of India. 

 Had all the data now available on that subject been before him 

 there would have been little new for discussion in such a Paper 

 as this. . 



The facilities which I have enjoyed for consulting authorities, 

 both in Calcutta and here in Dublin, in the rich treasury of rare 

 volumes in the library of Trinity College, have enabled me to 

 present a much longer list of writers than would have been pos- 

 sible had the field of research been limited to but one of these 

 sources. 



Two methods of employing the collected facts were open to 

 me — either to arrange them under subjects or under authors' 

 names : the latter, as it presents a general view of the development 

 and increase of knowledge, has been adopted. It is not without 

 the manifest objection that the same subject crops up again and 

 again in a disjointed manner ; but if the facts had been arranged 

 under the heading of subjects, the communication would have 

 taken the form of a treatise on Economic Greology of India, 

 which would scarcely be a suitable one for such an occasion 

 as the present. 



The earliest traders in Indian commodities, of whose proceedings 

 we have any record, were the Egyptians. According to Le Normant,^ 

 the bas-reliefs of the temple of Deir-el-Bahari at Thebes represent 

 the conquest of the land of Pun. under Hatasu. "In the abun- 

 dant booty, loading the vessels of Pharaoh for conveyance to the 

 land of Egpyt, appear a great many Indian animals and pro- 

 ducts not indigenous to the soil of Yemen — elephants' teeth, gold, 

 precious stones, sandal- wood, and monkeys." 



Again,^ " The labours of M. de Bohlem (Das Alte. Indien; 

 vol. i. p. 42), confirming those of Heeren, and in their turn con- 

 firmed by those of Lassen (Ind. Alt. ii. p. 580), have established 

 the existence of a maritime commerce between India and Arabia 

 from the very earliest period of the annals of humanity." The 



1 Hist. Anc. de L' Orient — Englisli edition, vol. ii. p. 299. 

 ■2 I. c. p. 301. 



