MALLET, VINDHYAN SERIES. 117 



kind of jointing or fissures, so that very large blocks may be extracted. 

 Some sandstone finds its way from tkence even as far as Calcutta, being 

 in use by tke undertakers tov tombstones, floorings, &c. The stone for the 

 Jumna bridge was obtained from the quarries some miles up the river, and 

 brought down in boats. Mr. Owen, formerly in charge of those at 

 Purtabpur, (from which, and from those at Seorajpoor on the Jubbulpur 

 line, the stone for the new High Court at Allahabad was taken) 

 describes the material as a '^ fine-grained, compact sandstone, of a 

 light reddish color; it is extremely homogeneous, moderately hard, 

 and suitable for every kind of work, from the large blocks of the 

 Jumna bridge piers, to. the elaborate carvings of a church. When first 

 quarried it is softer than it afterwards becomes when exposed to the 

 ahc." The workable stone lies in beds of from 6 inches to 8 feet in 

 thickness, — extremely fissile in some beds, — the lower the beds, the further 

 they crop out from the hiU, and the more compact and homogeneous 

 the stone, generally speaking. The stone is extracted by blasting and 

 by splitting with wedges. The cost in Allahabad of ashlar from these 

 quarries, including all expenses of quarrying, loading, carriage, and 

 unloading, &c., is 10 annas per cubic foot.^ The cities of Benares, 

 Mirzapm', and Allahabad, besides others of less note, draw their supplies 

 of building stone exclusively from the Kymores. 



The sandstones of the Eewah group are less used than those of either of 

 the other groups. This is due partly to the beds being frequently coarse 

 and harsh, and greatly subject to false bedding, partly to the fact that 

 the Rewahs do not occur much, close to the Gangetic valley or to large 

 cities. Some portions are however of superior quality, and supply all 

 local wants. In the neighbourhood of Hoshungabad, and also in the 

 Sipri and Gwalior districts, thin red flags from i to 1 inch thick are 

 much used for roofing. Some of these are true beds, others the laminse 

 produced by oblique stratification. In one quarry near Hoshungabad, two 

 systems of jointing were observed, forming nearly right angles with the 



* Professional papers on Indian Engineering. Roorkee, No. VI, 



( 117 ) 



