4Z2 BUILDING STONES AND 



9. Yellow and striped marble. 



10. Clay slate. 



1 1 . Nephrite or Jade. 



12. Shelly limestones, yellow and variegated — Sengmiriam: and lastly a 

 yellow stone called "Seng tilai" it is of a golden colour, but I had no op- 

 portunity of ascertaining, if it really be a stone.* The whole of these with 

 the exception of the shelly limestones, are used in the Mosaic of the Taj. 



1st. The Lapis Lazuli I am inclined to think is a foreign stone. I have 

 not hitherto found it in India. It is said to come from Ceylon and from 

 Thibet. Some pieces which form the upper border of the tomb of Momtaza 

 Begam are of a beautiful deep blue colour, containing interspersed crystals 

 of Iron Pyrites, which the ancients imagined to be gold. This stone is the 

 most rarely used in the Mosaic of the Taj. 



2. The Jasper is blood-red, and of the kind found in thebasaltic trap and 

 wacken rocks of Hiudusthan and in the beds of rivers issuing from them. 



*a 



3. Some of the specimens of Heliotrope or Bloodstone are large and beau- 

 tiful, and it is used in great profusion in the Mosaic. This stone is also 

 found in great abundance in the same locality as the Jasper. 



4, 5, 6, and 7, are generally very beautiful, and are translucent, verging 

 on transparent. They are of various shades of red, white and yellow. A- 

 mong the Agates are the ribbon agate, the fortification agate, the tubular 

 agate, moss agate or mocha stone and the star agate. The Carnelians and 

 Sardes are remarkably line. These stones are all found in the same locali- 

 ties, as the last. The Sone, the Nerbaddah and Godaveri rivers are said 

 to produce them in abundance. The great manufacture is at Cambay. I 

 once saw a lingam of agate which Lad been found in the Godaveri. Its 

 weight was probably from six to seven pounds, and it was finely zoned. 



* It is said to come from Kemaua. 



