SM Observations upon the past and present [Oc^. 



bles with a fall of perhaps 20 feet, over a perpendicular wall of 

 masonry, into its natural bed. Pucka walks separate the tanks from 

 each other, and in the centre, one broader than the rest cuts across 

 from bank to bank, dividing as it were the works into two squares. 

 The right bank (of the left stream) by a singular neglect and want of 

 taste presents only its natural rude face of black and broken earth, 

 whereas it afforded, by its gentle slope up to the palace, an excellent 

 base for a terraced ghat. — The left bank has been more favored, an 

 arcade lines it which opens to the river s and whose flat and pucka roof 

 is on a level with the top of the bank. The domed chamber contained 

 between each arch occupies about fourteen square feet. From the 

 central chambers a second arched way projects, giving this part of 

 the building a double width*. Two tanks occupy the outer, and spread 

 a delightful coolness through the interior, apartment. At a little dis- 

 tance from the left bank four high stone walls enclose a space whose 

 circuit is about three miles. It was probably once a rumna or garden. 



All these buildings are of trap, the material of most of the temples 

 and walls of Oujein, and which is quarried in a range of hills three 

 miles W. N. W. of the city. The assertion of Hunter that this range 

 is granite must have been a slip of the pen, for the step-like sides and 

 tabular top betray its composition from a distance, and granite is quite 

 unknown to Oujein. The range aho extends only two and not seven 

 miles as Hunter writesf, which seems to indicate some indistinct 

 ness in the MSS. at this place. The stone quarried here, and generally 

 for building throughout South Malwa differs in no respect from the 

 common trap of the Vindhya, except that being less interseamed with 

 quartz it affords a convenient material for the chisel. The hills from 

 which it is extracted do not furnish that variety of geodes, zeolites 

 and calcareous minerals which are spread in such profusion over the 

 ranges near Mhow, and the only amygdaloid I could detect on the 

 Oujein hill seemed merely decomposed trap, its cells lined with green 

 earth but containing no crystals^. 



To return to the water-palace. The works above described are so 

 solid, and the chunam so excellent, that the water which annually 



* See the plan. The two sketches 1 and 2 which accompany this paper have no 

 pretensions to minute accuracy. They are in some degree drawn from recollection 

 and are merely explanatory of the text, — I am indebted for them to the kindness 

 of Lieutenent Kewney, D. A. S. M. G. 



t A similar range lies to the south not far distant, but with a different 

 elevation. 



% The sun was however so hot, and I was so unwell that I could not stay 

 to dig. 



