1843.] and Hydraulic works in India. 539 



the work advanced. The bottom was afterwards covered with three- 

 eighths of the mastic. Its use as a cement for hydraulic purposes is 

 not new, for Buffon in his Natural History, article " Bitumen," says, 

 " J'ai fait enduire il y a trente six ans un assez grand bassin du jardin 

 " d'histoire naturelle qui depuis a toujours tenu parfaitement l'6au." 

 That Buffon did so write is stated in a pamphlet called " Observations 

 generates sur les mines bitumineuses du Pare de Pyrimont." In the 

 " Place de la Concorde," in the centre of which the Egyptian obelisk is 

 erected, about 24,000 square yards of most magnificent pavement are 

 laid down of asphalte in elegant mosaic work, the fluid substance 

 was spread in moulds of bar iron of the required pattern, which in this 

 instance is alternate squares of black and white, each square having a 

 circle of the opposite color to itself, in the centre. At the estate 

 of the Baron de Montmorenci is a conservatory floored in the most 

 splendid manner, the substance being formed into patterns of foliage 

 and scrolls, with a rich Grecian fretwork border. In London it has 

 been used in several places ; the noble piece of pavement at Whitehall 

 and the carriage drive to the Ordnance Office may be cited as examples. 

 The roofs and terraces of several noblemen's houses are covered with it, 

 and its efficiency universally acknowledged. In the manufacturing towns, 

 the floors of large workshops and store-rooms are laid with asphalte, 

 and the terraces of many sheds of railway stations. The whole of the 

 arches of the Greenwich railway are covered with it, with a view of 

 preserving that extensive viaduct free from damp. It is used as a 

 foot pavement in many of the metropolitan parishes and in country 

 towns also, and one of the principal streets of Liverpool is paved with 

 it. To such a mass of evidence of the great utility and value of the 

 material, as it has been applied in Europe, there is to be added the 

 experiment of its efficacy as lately laid down in Calcutta, the Court of 

 Directors having permitted the writer of this memoir to bring out a 

 ton of the mastic for the purpose of testing its fitness for the public 

 service. Petroleum oil is to be found in the neighbourhood of Rangoon, 

 and on the Irawadee N. E. of Pegu and elsewhere, which substance, 

 after the naptha is distilled from it,* will answer as a substitute for 



* The price gained for the naptha might cover most of the expence of procuring 

 the Petroleum. Limestone impregnated with bitumen, dried, ground and mixed with 

 its own weight of coal tar is an admirable cement, and will form a most desirable 

 terrace ; its mode of using, the same as asphalte. 



4 B 



