202 Journal of a trip to CuttacJc, [March, 



There is a market held occasionally at Tanghee where brass utensils, 

 coarse cloth, and shoes are sold, chiefly brought from Cuttack; the 

 village is a tolerable sized one, there is a police thana : it is in the Mo- 

 gulbundee and in the pergunnah Kokakund. 



Cuttack, Friday ', the 2nd December, 1836. — We commenced our 

 march at 4 o'clock, and did not reach our camp (which was pitched 

 under the east face of the fort on the river side) till ten o'clock, our hacke- 

 ries did not arrive till very late, owing to the very long and heavy drag 

 through the sand of the Mahanuddee, a distance of two miles. 



Owing to the river not being fordable at the regular ghat, we were 

 obliged to go more than three miles to the left off the direct road on 

 reaching Chaudwdr, and cross over at the ferry three miles below the 

 fort, nearly opposite Chowleea gunge. 



The road was very good as far as Chaudwdr where we turned off and 

 passed over the ruins of that ancient city, which extend for many miles. 

 There are very few ruins above ground, but the foundations of many 

 are visible, particularly of the walls and moat which was faced with 

 stone ; there are numerous reservoirs also, and the remains of tem- 

 ples ; the stone was removed in former years to build the fort of Cuttack 

 and the revetment ; it is chiefly mottled red iron clay called laterite by 

 mineralogists and mookura by the natives ; it is a curious substance and 

 has the appearance of vitrified clay and other earths of various colors, 

 red, black, yellow and brown, with fragments of every description of rock 

 imbedded in it, in greater quantities nearest the hills ; it has much the 

 appearance of brick-kiln slag, and seems to have been caused by sudden 

 immersion into water while in its fused state, the beds of this mineral 

 are usually near the surface of the soil, and average in thickness from 

 10 inches to 10 and 12 feet and even more in some localities. I have 

 observed frequently thin coats adhering to the rocks and bases of the 

 hills, either rising from, or bordering on, the plains ; in such localities 

 it is much more vitrified and consequently harder than that which is 

 found resting on marl : it also contains (as I have before said) a greater 

 proportion of fragments of quartz, granite, sand-stone, &c. &c. But to re- 

 turn ; Chaudwdr, the southern face of this ancient city is, and ever has 

 been washed by a branch of the Mahanuddee called the Biroopd, the walls 

 along the river face are in many parts still in existence, the present 

 village of Chaudwdr is close to them. 



Stirling makes but little mention of this curious place, he calls it 

 " Chauwdr or city of four gates," it should be " Chaudadwdr or city 



