IN THE CARNATIG, 9 



The distance from the point of the roof, which stands over the entrance; 

 to the bottom of the principal recess, is twenty four feet; and the Vv^hole 

 roof (which is of a considerable thickness, and proje61s horizontally 

 eight or nine feet beyond the remaining pillar) hangs over the head, sup- 

 ported merely by the adhesive qualities of the component parts of th^ 

 stratum.. 



I HAVE now only a few words to add on the probable species of the trees 

 which lie petrified near Treevikera, about which we can form only vague 

 Gonje6lures.. 



To judge by tae present growth of tree sr in the vicinity, which are 

 principally of the tamarind kind ; by the respeftive height of these trees, 

 and of the petrified shafts which lie upon the ground ; by the dark red 

 and brown colours which are to be seen in the centre of the petrifac^lionSj 

 and by the deep brown colour of the heart of the tamarind tree; and par- 

 ticularly if we consider that in no one subje6l which I have examined, I 

 could distinguish the adhesive rootSj and sinuosities which chara^lerize the 

 trunk of the banian tree (the only species of size besides the tamarind 

 which is to bs seen, in the distridl) from these considerations, I say, we 

 may conclude that the whole of that transformed grove, was once of the 

 " majestic, and wide spreading tamarind." ' 



Of the antiquity of these petrifaftions we are still more ignorant. 

 The archives of the Treevikera pagoda are silent in regard to them. 

 The oldest bramins on the spot, who are the only intelligent people in the 

 village, declare that they remember some of the largest trees since fifty 

 years; and that their fathers, and grand-fathers asserted they had like-- 

 wise seen them; but that no trace had been transmitted down of their 



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