114 miscellaneous notices. 



Antiquities of Province Wellesley. 



Col. James Low, who was for many years Superintendent 

 in charge of Province Wellesley, makes the following reference 

 to this subject in his " Dissertation on the soil and agriculture 

 of Penang- and Province Wellesley/' published in Singapore in 

 1836. 



" While employed several years ago in exploring' the ruins of 

 ■" an ancient Boudhist temple in Province Wellesley, — an account 

 " of which I have promised to the Asiatic Society of Calcutta — I 

 <( obtained a small coffee-pot which had been carefully built up 

 " with bricks at the depth of four or five feet. The lid was firm- 

 " ly baked, but on being handled, the vessel crumbled, nearly to 

 "" pieces — within it was found the figure of a fowl constructed of 

 "" thin silver wire, which also fell to pieces on being' handled. 

 " But the bill and feet were perfect, bring- made of an alloyed 

 " metal, chiefly gold." 



The writei gives no clue as to the whereabouts of this ancient 

 Buddhist temple, but I imagine it to have been one of those sin- 

 gular mounds of shells which are to be met with in the north of 

 Province Wellesley not far from the Muda river. They are com- 

 posed of sea-shells of the kind called kepah and karang (cockles) 

 by the Malays, though they are situated at some distance from 

 the sea. Xo other shells of the kind are to be found near the 

 place, I believe. I have been told by Malays in Province Wel- 

 lesley that one of these mounds was opened and explored by Col. 

 Low. If the others, left perfect by him, have escaped destruc- 

 tion at the hands of Chinese limeburners, they will probably be 

 worth examination and description. " Goa kepah" ( shell- 

 cave), a place in the neighbourhood, no doubt takes its name 

 from these mounds. I do not know if Col. Low carried out his 

 intention of describing the results of his exploration. I have 

 searched through the only volumes of the proceeding's of the 

 Asiatic Society of Calcutta to which I have access (vols. I, II 

 and III.), but I have found no paper on the subject. 



At the foot of Bukit Mertajam, on the South side, there is a 

 block of granite on which some rude characters have been traced. 

 The Malays call it hatu sural, the rock of the writing. I believe 

 that the inscription has never been deciphered and that the cha- 

 racter has not been identified. When I saw it last (in 1874), 

 it was difficult in places to detect the ancient inscription on the 

 rugged face of the rock, its faint lines contrasting strangely 

 with the deeply-cut initials of Col. Low on the same boulder. 



W. E. M. 



