NO. 48—1897.] GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 47 



Gneiss being the prevailing rock and close at hand is 

 much used' for building and other purposes. From a remote 

 period it has been worked into pillars and posts, lintels and 

 doorways for temples and palaces, while the images, in their 

 various shapes and forms to be found in the vihares in the 

 Province, have nearly all been carved out of the same 

 material. Bailey, in his graphic description of the perforated 

 window at Yapahuwa, regretted that such exquisite work- 

 manship as had been lavished on it should not have been 

 expended on more refined material, for instance, the mag- 

 nesian limestone, which is so abundant in the Province, 

 than on such rough and coarse stuff as gneiss. It must 

 be noted, however, that though the effects of storm and 

 sunshine of six centuries and more have done their worst 

 to the ruins of temple and palace which have been exposed 

 to their influences, yet such ruins as are yet to be seen, 

 for instance, the perforated window of Yapahuwa, show 

 how well they have withstood the ravages of time and 

 weather. Gneiss is also largely used for metalling roads, 

 and a "pocket " on the side of the Kurunegala rock, near the 

 Galabandare shrine, from which the stone is being quarried, 

 affords an excellent section of gneissic rock with its various 

 interpolating veins of quartz, &c. 



Quartz in large veins as well as in extensive imbedded 

 masses is of common occurrence. Several of such outcrops 

 are to be met with on the Kurunegala railway line. 



Dolomite, or crystalline magnesian limestone, which 

 overlies the gneiss, occurs in various parts of the Province. 

 A bed of it has been found to run through the Kurunegala 

 District in a somewhat parallel direction, striking generally 

 N.W. by N. to N., and having various dips from 10° to 40°. 

 Dixon, after indicating two outcrops in the Island, the first 

 near Baiangoda and at Hunuwala, the second through 

 Dolosbage and Maskeliya, traced the third under the Great 

 Western, at Great Western estate, to be continuous to N.N.W. 

 with Wattegedara and Medakumbura, and probably also with 

 the beds at Gampola and Kurunegala. In illustration of a 



