296 Dr. Voysey's Private Journal [No. 4, 



Amrawuttyy February Uth, 1820.— I arrived at this place at sunrise 

 and immediately mounted my horse and visited Depuldinny. I found a 

 circular excavation about 300 feet in diameter, its angles facing the in- 

 termediates to the cardinal points ; all the stones dug up had been removed 

 to a bungalow hard by, belonging to the Rajah. I noticed two capitals 

 of columns partly visible, the earth not having been cleared away from 

 them, I bathed in the river, jumping from a mass of granite rock which 

 projected into the Kistuah ; there were many quartz veins running 

 through it, it resembling very strongly No. 7. On my return I made 

 a detailed examination of the stones in the bungalow, No. 25. I then 

 re-visited Depuldinny. I had leisure to notice that the area occupied 

 by the stones, was circular and 100 yards in diameter. It is probable 

 that the extent in somewhat greater, since I observed some of the 

 circular capitals bisecting the circle in a direction E. and W. The area 

 contains a well dug by the Zemindar Jugganauth Row, about 15 yards 

 square, the depth about twenty feet, the upper half the calcareous breccia 

 or pisolite, the lower micaceous schists in vertical strata injected with veins 

 of the calc breccia, both vertical and horizontal, communicating with 

 each other. I afterwards paid a visit to the pagoda : nothing remarkable 

 but the inhospitality of the Brahmins. I crossed the bed of the Kistnah 

 to Autcom, the bed is three miles wide and contains a very large 

 island, on which I observed the thistle ; a few esculent grains growing 

 on the black mud of which the upper part is formed. The old man 

 Apparoo, whom I had previously seen at Purteal made his appearance. 

 He told me that the greatest depth of the diamond mines was 18 or 20 

 feet, and they then came to an earth called Nushar, which was soft, and 

 that the real reason that fresh ground was not opened was from the want 

 of capital to begin ; the price of labour was a seer and a quarter of jooarrie 

 each man per diem. No diamonds had been found in any of the villages 

 for a considerable period. At five o'clock I went to the diamond mines with 

 the Kurnum, sending my bearers on towards Condapilly. I saw nothing 

 but heaps of old stones and earth by the side of the excavations. The 

 calc tuff and the pebbles of jasper and quartz were the most conspicuous 

 in the excavations ; but I was told that there was a considerable quantity 

 of fresh ground to the north. I arrived at Condapilly at nine o'clock. 



Condapilly y February \2th, 1820. — I ascended the hill of Condapilly 

 at sunrise but was unable to proceed farther than the palace and fort 



