Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Feb. 



of 28th Dec. ; the nearest flood times at Madras were about 3 a. m. 

 on the 27th, and 4-30 p. m. on the 28th, so on the second occasion I 

 must have been near the top of tide. 



" A single group of rocks will give all the marks I can suggest. 

 About 200 yards south of the pagoda, well within the beach line, is 

 a small group offering many points for identification : this I believe to 

 be the Gazetteer (the writer of 1831,) group ' half underwater at high 

 water, carved in grinning lions and tigers' heads.' (I am not sure of 

 his exact words ; this is certainly the meaning.) As the conditions of 

 his visit are not noted, this information would be worth little, even if 

 we knew that he had investigated these rocks as minutely as he could, 

 and recorded his observations at once. But I am not to talk of him 

 now. The group of which I speak (and of which I believe him to 

 speak) is one of five rocks, two standing in shore of the other three : 

 the southernmost of the seaward three is the largest. Its sea face is 

 carved into an elephant's head supporting a shrine, a horse trotting up 

 to the head from the south, some figures approaching from the north ; 

 on the back is another shrine hole, and some slight carvings of figures 

 and a lion's head : the rock behind this is wrought into a sleeping 

 lion. The middle one of the three seaward is a small untouched 

 rock ; the northernmost is a crag whose landward face is worked into 

 a shrine hole within a border of grotesque masks : the fifth rock, just 

 behind this, has no sign of human handicraft but its smoothed top. 

 Now on my second visit the waves were just washing round them, as 

 though they'stood on the highest point such a tide could reach. 



"Between these rocks and the pagoda is a pile of stones strewn on 

 the beach as ready to the builder's hand, close to a rock, stepped as for 

 the foundations of a small temple ; over this rock every wave was 

 dashing on my second visit in a sheet. 



" The rise or fall of the coast must be very gradual, and probably no 

 marked difference would be observed, at the same season, for the next 

 20 years : the publication of this note then would be of very little 

 use, as it would certainly be forgotten or inaccessible as the old papers 

 arc : but every member should send to the Society such notes as he 

 may be able to make, though the waste basket may better suit the 

 majority than the Journal. 



"Madras, bth Jtunj., 1806. (Sd.) "R. Taylor." 



