182 Description of the Chandrarelehqgnrh. [No. 3, 



jungle lying pretty nearly north and south. Its longest line is east 

 and west. It measures 1,050 yards in this direction, and from north to 

 south 780 yards ; so that the circumference is just two miles. It is huilt 

 with unusual precision and completeness, differing in this from all the 

 other forts I have seen in this district. A perfectly straight ditch on each 

 side with a high bund inside ; it has been almost filled up on the northern 

 side and somewhat less so on the western, by the drainage of the country, 

 which at this spot flows S. S. E. The western end of the ditch on 

 the south side has been affected in the same way, the drain- 

 age turning southwards round the corner ; the northern end of the 

 eastern ditch has not suffered so, because the drainage sets away from 

 that corner, and the ditch is not continuous round the corner. At this 

 place, therefore, the eastern ditch is seen in perfection, and a very 



surprising work it is. It is cut through 

 \ u / solid rock, except the upper two or three 



\—l — / feet, and the sides are carefully sloped 



left ' j l 



with the chisel. The rock is the com- 

 mon Midnapore laterite, not a hard stone to cut, and not a very good 

 one to wear. It is liable to frequent clefts, and is seldom continuous 

 in very large blocks. Consequently the sides of the ditch have fallen 

 in a good deal, but there is ample to shew that when first finished, 

 this ditch was a thoroughly workmanlike production. The soil was 

 removed at the lips of it, and the rock carried up by two or three 

 layers of stone. It is carried all down the eastern face, and turns 

 the corner with almost modern precision, and continues along the 

 southern face till it is silted up at the western end. From the charac- 

 ter of the whole fort I am satisfied that, if cleared, the ditch would be 

 found equally perfect all round; on those two faces it is scarcely 

 filled up at all, though overhung with jungle and difficult to get along 

 in consequence. 



The bund on this eastern face is about 12 feet high and 50 broad. 

 Within it is another equally fine and well-preserved ditch cut in the 

 same way through the solid rock. This ditch does not go round the 

 other three sides, nor can I say certainly that it goes all up the 

 eastern side, but the natives say it does, and I went along some 100 

 yards of it, till it got so bearish-looking that the villagers would not 

 go further with me. 



