MIDNAPOEE, ORISSA, &C. 277 



greater advantages from its peculiar character ; it is easy to cut and 



shape when first dug, and it becomes hard and 

 laterite, its uses. i p ,.■,.,, 



tough after exposure to the air, while it seems to 



be very little acted on by the weather. Indeed in many of the sculp- 

 tured stones of some of the oldest buildings, temples, &c. in the 

 district, the chisel-marks are as fresh and sharp as when first built. It 

 is, perhaps, not so strong, nor so capable of resisting great pressure, or 

 bearing great weights, as some of the sandstones, or the more compact 

 kinds of gneiss, but it certainly possesses amply sufficient strength for 

 all ordinary purposes. It is largely used at the present time, but has 

 also been employed from the earliest period from which the temples 

 and buildings of the country date. And the elaborate specimens of 

 carving and ornament, which some of these present, shew that the 

 nodular structure and irregular surface of the laterite does not prevent 

 its effective use for such purposes of ordinary ornamentation, as mould- 

 ings, &c. Another advantage it possesses over other rocks is the 

 facility of transport, it being generally found in the low grounds, and 

 often at no great distance from some of the many streams which traverse 

 the vicinity. 



Slabs from four to five feet long are easily procurable of this I'ock. 



They are quarried in a rude but effective way ; a 

 Mode of quarrying. . . , . , , 



groove IS cut with a rudely pointed pick round 

 the slab : another is made underneath, and then a few wedges driven in 

 split off the block. The more loose and gravelly forms of the laterite are 

 universally used for road-metal for which purpose they are admirably 

 adapted. 

 In Orissa, gneiss and sandstone are also quarried in places for build- 

 ing purposes. Ancient sculptures on both are 

 found. The caves of Khundegeree, and the tem- 

 ples of Bobanessur are both of sandstone, while temples with statues of 

 Hindoo deities carved in gneiss are common in many districts aa on 



