1837.] Facsimiles of Ancient Inscriptions. 663 



33. Serpentine and clay stone forming a porphyritic structure as in 7. 



34. Scoria found in the sands of the Brahmaputra. 



35. Something of a similar nature but heavier. 



36. A large crystal of garnet and mica received from Mr. Br vice of 

 Sadiyah, and said to be found in the Abor mountains. 



37. 

 33. 



Although these minerals have been merely submitted to a hasty in- 

 spection, yet it requires no great care or penetration to detect by their 

 means an interesting affinity in the nature of the rock composing the 

 sub-Himalayan ranges at very remote points along the line of their 

 southern base. We find the porphyries of the Abor mountains not 

 very different from those that are found in the bed of the Gogra at 

 Burmdeo pass, 900 miles to the westward, vide 111, and 128 in the 

 foregoing catalogue, which constitute the central masses of the outer 

 range of the mountains of Kemaon, merely covered except on the in- 

 accessible precipices, by sedimentary deposits of a very recent nature. 



IV. — Facsimiles of Ancient Inscriptions, lithographed by James Prinsbp, 

 Sec. As. Soc. SfC. 



While engaged upon the engrossing object of the lat inscription, 

 other documents of the same nature have been accumulating so fast upon 

 my hands, that I shall have some difficulty in bringing up the arrear, 

 even with a sacrifice of all the collateral information which should be 

 sought from various sources, in illustration of the ancient records I 

 have undertaken to preserve in an accessible shape through the con- 

 venient and facile process of lithography. My apology must be that 

 once made public, these documents will be always open to discussion, 

 and their utility will be felt at times and in cases which it is impossible 

 to foresee. The task of systematically arranging and applying such 

 materials may be safely left to the profound author of the long-expected 

 f* Corpus inscriptionum Indicarum" — to whom I proffer the fullest 

 permission to extract all that can forward his object of filling up the 

 history of India from numismatical and monumental data. 



Following the random order of the plates themselves, I must first 

 notice the 



Inscription on a Stone Slab, No. 1 of the Society's museum, 52 lines, 

 of which the five first lines are given as a specimen in Plate XXXII, 

 The stone is marked at the side as having been " presented to the 

 4 q 2 



