1839.] Note on the River Goomtee. 713 



consists of stone-slabs and sugar mills from Chunar — saul wood from 

 Gorukhpore, and grain of all kinds from the latter place and Bengal ; — 

 downwards are sent sugar, and the indigo of numerous factories about 

 Jounpore. 



I send for the Museum* some fragments of glazed earthenware, 

 found on a slightly elevated spot in this neighbourhood. Forty years 

 ago the place was covered with dense jungle, and large burr and 

 peepul trees — sufficient grounds for believing the absence of human 

 habitations for a very long period. The Hindoos have been denied the 

 knowledge of the art of porcelain manufacture and glazing, and I am 

 not aware of specimens like these having elsewhere been found. As a 

 Hindoo can use earthen vessels but once, it is most probable that a 

 Moosulman village once stood where these pieces are found, and very 

 likely the art came with those for whose service such vessels would be 

 employed. It is, however, strange that the art should have been lost, 

 for I believe it is no where known to the natives. The fragments are 

 of a coarse fabric and rude workmanship, but the glaze is good, and the 

 colours very bright, considering the time they have been exposed — pro- 

 bably two or three hundred years ; — the blue is very bright, and seems 

 to have been the favourite colour — the designs are not very elegant, and 

 evidently neither Chinese nor imitations of it. 



Agates and pebbles, cut and uncut, are also found, having been used 

 I imagine in the composition of the glaze; or it may be for beads only, 

 numbers of which are picked up. They must have been brought from 

 a distance, as no stream producing them is to be seen on this side the 

 Ganges, the nearest hills being opposite Benares. Could the common 

 clay now used have been employed for the body of the ware ? I fancy 

 not, for it vitrifies and swells at a low heat, losing its shape, and 

 adhering to whatever it touches. It is a great pity the art is lost. 



V. T. 



* Many will doubtless laugh to see them there. I was surprised, when a boy, to see. 

 in the British Museum pieces of broken glass vessels, neither handsome nor well 

 made ; but it was explained to me, that such things were valuable as specimens of the 

 manufacture in its early days, and not according to their price as mere glass. 



