Chapter VIII. — Economic Geology. 



No one can have travelled through any of the districts of Southern 

 India in which large pagodas occur, without having been struck by the 

 admirable adaptation to architectural purposes of several varieties of 

 gneiss rock, as regards both the size and the durability of the blocks 

 employed, independently of their beauty when polished. 



To cite only a few examples in well-known and easily accessiljle 

 places. In the Durbar hall in the Eajah's palace at Tanjore is a magni- 

 ficent slab of gneiss, raised some height from the ground, and supporting 

 a fine white marble statue (by Ghantrey) of the late Rajah, in lieu of 

 the throne which formerly occupied the slab. The dimensions of this splen- 

 did slab are : — length 18 feet, width 16 feet, depth 3 feet \\ inches. The 

 upper surface is polished, and shows well the foliation of the rock, which 

 is a quartzo-felspathic gneiss ; but the slab, though well cut, cannot be 

 called well polished, and looks of a dingy brown colour, owing, very 

 probably, to the peculiar method of polishing in use by the natives. 



It is not known where this fine mass was quarried, but equally fine 

 masses might doubtless be obtained by skilful workmen from several 

 of the gneiss bosses near to Trichinopoly, which are similar in their 

 mineral composition, such as the Mummullay, near Thoangoody "^ Tra- 

 vellers' Bungalow;'-' the Errumbeesprum Pagoda Eock; the Golden Rock 

 or Ponmullay, on the Brigade Ground ; and the Trichinopoly Rock itself, 

 in aU of which the jointing and foliation appear favorable to the quarry- 

 ing of large rectangular masses of stone. 



The great Bull in the court of the principal pagoda at Tanjore is 

 Carved stone-work at ^^^ ^ ^^^7 ^^^ carved monolith, said to consist of 

 Tanjore, black granite or syenite.* 



A smaller temple, standing in the north-west corner of the pagoda 

 com't, and built of a pale quartzose gneiss, is a perfect gem of carved stone- 

 work, and the tooling of the stone in the most exquisitely delicate and 



* At the time of my visit, it was so thoroughly covered over with a coating of red la- 

 terite dust mixed with the sacrificial oil, that I could not pretend to say what might be the 

 nature of the stone underneath. — R. B. F. 



T ' ( 367 ) 



