Ball — A Geologisfs Contribution to the History of India. 91 



With reference to the imports which are of interest as indicat- 

 ing the requirements, if not of the whole of India, at least of that 

 portion of Western India into which they were carried, we find 

 the following enumeration: — 



Silver : Costly plate, from Egypt to Barugaza. 



Gold and silver coins, from Egypt to Barugaza. 



Gold bullion, from Arabia to Barugaza. 



Arsenic, from Egypt to Mouziris and Nilkunda. 



Tin, from Egypt lo Mouziris and Barugaza. 



Lead, from Egypt to Mouziris and Barugaza. 



Antimony sulphide, from Egypt to Mouziris and Barugaza. 



Copper, from Egypt to Mouziris and Barugaza. 



The import of silver plate at this early period is remarkable. 

 Whether it has been kept up in modern times, so far as the require- 

 ments of the natives are concerned, I cannot say, but the other 

 substances are still largely imported. In four years recently, for 

 instance, upwards of 200 tons of arsenic, in the forms of white 

 arsenic, orpiment, and realgar, were imported ; and the antimony 

 sulphide, called surma by the natives of India, is largely used for 

 anointing the eyes. 



Xpu(roAt0oe was also exported from Egypt to all four ports. 

 It appears to be tolerably clear that this mineral was not our 

 modern chrysolite, but was the topaz, while the topazion of Pliny 

 was in part at least chrysolite, as he says it yielded to the file and 

 wore with use ; but his mention of a statue, 4 cubits high, which 

 was made of it, indicates a crystal of a size quite unheard of : pro- 

 bably this was either beryl or jade. 



Ptolomey (a.d. 140-160). Diamonds. — HhB Adamas river of 

 Ptolomey, according to Lassen's analysis of the data, was not 

 identical with the Mahanadi, as I have suggested in my " Economic 

 Greology," ^ but with the Subanrikha, which is, however, so far as we 

 know, not a diamond-bearing river, nor does it at any part of its 

 course traverse rocks of the age of those which contain the matrix 

 of the diamond in other parts of India. This Adamas river was 

 separated from the Mahnada [i.e. Mahanadi) by the Tyndis and 

 Dosaron; the latter, according to Lassen, taking its rise in the 

 country of Kokkonaga [i.e. Ohutia Nagpur), and to which the 

 chief town, Dosara (the modern Doesa), gave its name. But, 



' Economic Geology, p. 30. 



SCIEN. PROC. K.D.S. VOL. IV. PT. IIo I 



