112 F. S. Growse — On a Buddhist sculpture. [June, 



This need not be taken as proving that no source of cinnabar was avail- 

 able to them, because they may have found by experience that the use of 

 the latter was injurious to their health. 



" An expedition to explore these islands should be thoroughly well 

 officered and equipped. Speaking from personal experience, I can say that 

 the risk of fever is very great, and those who remain on shore at night 

 will have to take every precaution to avoid its attacks ; but, as I have 

 endeavoured to show, there are reasons, both scientific and and practical, 

 which encourage the belief that sucja an exploration would prove fruitful 

 in good results." 



4. Note on a photograph of a Buddhist sculpture found at Buland- 

 shahr.— By F. S. Geowse, C. I. E. 



The Buddhist sculpture, shown in the accompanying photograph, was 

 discovered a few days ago at Bulandshahr, in the garden of a native gen- 

 tleman, Munshi Gopal Rai, close to the Id-gah, between the city and the 

 civil station. It had originally been dug up some 20 years previously in 

 the old Khera known as the Moti Bazar, which is now being levelled. 

 It is of interest as being, so far as I know, the only unquestionable 

 proof that has yet come to light of the ancient prevalence of Buddhism 

 in this neighbourhood. The sculptured pillars that I found in the town 

 of Bulandshahr, and of which a notice and illustration were given in the 

 Society's Journal for 1879, may have belonged either to a Buddhist or to 

 a Brahmanical temple ; it is impossible to say which, the style of architec- 

 ture affected by both being essentially the same and differing chiefly in 

 ground plan. The stone, in which the sculpture is cut, is a square block 

 measuring in its mutilated state 1 foot 4^ inches either way, the material 

 being a black slate, not the sang-musa or black marble of Jaypur. The 

 principal figure represents the Buddha, enveloped in a thin robe reaching 

 to the wrists and ankles and falling over the body in a succession of nar- 

 row folds. His arms are slightly raised in front of his breast and the 

 thumb and fore-finger of his left hand are joined at the tips, while with 

 his right hand he touches its middle finger, as if summing up the points 

 of an argument. On either side of his throne is a rampant hippogriff, with 

 its back to the sage and rearing its head over a devotee seated in an 

 attitude of prayer. The throne is supported on two recumbent lions, 

 flanked by Hindu caryatides with impossibly distorted limbs as usual ; 

 and at the base again are other devotees kneeling on either side of the 

 footstool, the front of which is carved with the mystic wheel between 

 two couchant deer. The upper part of the stone has been broken off, 

 carrying with it the head of the principal figure, but what remains is in 

 good preservation and has been well executed. On a ledge in a line with 



