82 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society, 



Lassen's view, tliat it shows tliat the Indians knew how to extract 

 gold from ores, follows, since it may merely refer to the melting of 

 alluvial gold dust. 



Silver is said to occur also in the above-mentioned country of 

 the Pygmies, upon which Lassen remarks that silver is only known 

 to occur in Ajmir. It has, however, a much wider distribution, as 

 I have shown in my " Economic Greology"; but the only region in 

 which it is regularly produced at present is Upper Burmah.^ 



Iron is said to be found in the same spring or fountain as the 

 gold ; and Ktesias had two swords, made of Indian iron, given to 

 him respectively by the King of Persia, and his mother. This 

 iron consisted, I believe, of ingots of 2vootz or cast-steel, from which 

 Damascus blades have been made since time immemorial.^ The 

 power of iron to ward off thunderstorms, which is referred to by 

 Ktesias, suggests rather an early knowledge of the use of lightning 

 conductors than of the properties of the magnet, which is the ex- 

 planation offered by Baehr, 



The Pantarha is a kind of stone which, when thrown into the 

 water, had the power of drawing together other stones of various 

 colours to the number of 77. It has been suggested by Count Yon 

 Yeltheim that this was some kind of opal, which, on being put 

 into water, exhibited a rich play of colours. Upon this I can 

 offer no opinion : no more probable supposition suggests itself to 

 my mind. 



The sardine stone, the onyx, and other seal stones, are said to 

 be found in certain high mountains. There is no further indica- 

 tion of locality. Possibly, Oujein, in Malwa, or some of the other 

 ]places where mines of Ohalcedonio minerals occur, was intended. 



Evidence of various kinds exists that in the time of the Indian 

 monarch, Asoka, about 300 b. c, the mineral resources of India were 

 well known and were largely availed of. Stone architecture on a 

 magnificent scale, which is still extant, bears testimony to the skill 

 of the Buddhist stone-masons of a still earlier period. The elaborate 

 carvings on some of these prove the excellence of the tools which 

 were employed ; probably they were made of Indian steel or 

 wootz. The famous Asoka monoliths of a later date, from 35 to 



1 Economic Geology, p. 234. ■ ' 



^ The name ivootz, according to Lassen, Indisch. Alt. (i. p. 239), is derived from 

 tlie Sanskrit vag'ra, from two words signifying diamond and thunderbolt. 



