XXII. Account of the Erection of a Granite Obelisk, of a 

 single Stone, about seventy feet high, at Seringapatam. By 

 Alexander Kennedy, M. D. F. R. S. Edin. &c. 



(Read December 3. 1821. ) 



\JN the 19th of February last, I had the honour of reading 

 to this Society, some notices of the mode of working and po- 

 lishing granite, by the natives of India *. 



One object of that paper was, from a view of the immense 

 masses, which Indian artists are still in the habit of rendering 

 obedient to their simple instruments, to deduce the probabi- 

 lity of the similarity, if not of the identity, of the means now 

 in use among them, with the processes by which the architects 

 of the ancient world, raised the stupendous monuments which 

 we still see in existence ; and, as an instance of the very re- 

 cent exercise of these arts, I mentioned the erection of a gra- 

 nite obelisk near Seringapatam, to the memory of the late Jo- 

 siah Webbe, Esq. who died in the year 1805. The late Pro- 

 fessor Playfair had expressed to me a desire of procuring in- 

 formation, as to the means by which the erection of this mo- 

 nument had been accomplished ; and a wish to bring these to 

 light, as well as my uncertainty regarding the exact length of 



the 



* This Paper will be found in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, vol. iv. 

 p. 349. 



