2 ACCOUNT OF PETRIFACTIONS 



I have done little more than to collate, by immediate inspe6!;ion, what 

 he has very corre(5lly described. Some few additional remarks have oc- 

 curred, which I have annexed to his paper ; but these, though they have 

 extended, have seldom corrected his narrative. 



The village of Treevikera is situated on the north bank of the Arria^ 

 coopum or Villenore river, about fifteen miles in a dire6lion west by north 

 of the city of Pondicherry, and four miles beyond the old Fort of Wol- 

 door, formerly belonging to the French, but now in a state of ruin. 



Treevikera is at present composed of a few scattered huts; although, 

 from the appeamnce of the pagoda at that place, the interior of which is 



all built of stones, from the size of the tower overits gateway eight sto- 

 ries high, (the lower one of which is entirely of blue granite), from the 

 large stone tank which lies close to the pagoda, and covers several acres 

 of grounds and the size of the principal streets, which can still be traced ; 

 from these remains, I say^ we may conclude that in former times Treevi- 

 kera was a place of great extent and importance. The inscriptions in 

 Sanscrit upon the walls, now scarcely legible i and the mouldered condi- 

 tion of many of the stones, indicate the great antiquity of these buildings. 

 The destru6live hand of Haider Ali Kh'an, however, has accelerated 

 the ravages of time : for many parts of the pagoda were injured, and 

 several of the statues mutilated, by his army, as it retired from Porto 

 JSTovo towards Mysore, in the year 178I0 



, To the eastward of the village, at a distance of a quarter of a mile^ 

 rises a hill, or rather a hillock ; one of a chain consisting of ten or a do- 

 zen similar elevations, none exceeding forty or fifty feet in perpendicular 

 height. These hills vary in size, and run in a line from north to south ; 

 the whole extending over about one mile and a half of ground. 



