NO. 48.— 1897.] ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY, SIGIRIYA. 107 



How little comparatively now remains to attest the 

 ancient beauty and grandeur of Sigiri-nuwara, the parricide's 

 stronghold : — 



Those golden pallaces, those gorgeous halles, 



With fourniture superfluouslie faire ; 

 Those statelie courts, those sky-encountring walls. 



Evanish all like vapours in the aire. 



Miscellaneous. 



Of extra work carried out this year — apart from the copying 

 of the frescoes, which will be presently dealt with — the most 

 important was the improvement, obviously called for, in the 

 means of ascent to the Rock's summit. 



The two stout iron ladders put up by the Public Works 

 Department in 1894-95, which land the climber at the bottom 

 of the grooved slope (the track of the " gallery " long 

 since washed away), need only light hand-rails and flat 

 iron below the rungs to further simplify ascent. Not so the 

 low single rail carried up the slope to the top of the Rock 

 from the head of the ladders. This makeshift hand-hold 

 was distinctly unsafe — as easy to slip under as trip over — and 

 each season I have had to take the precaution of supplemen- 

 ting it with a close-tied fence of jungle sticks. I, therefore, 

 took upon myself this year the responsibility of making, once 

 for all, a "Union Jack " fence in iron. Additional standards 

 have been sunk into the rock, a higher rail run through 

 them, and diagonal bars fixed across each span. 



" Siha-giri Rock, that was hard for men to climb," — as the 

 Mahdivansa puts it, — may for the future be ascended in 

 perfect safety by the most timid. 



Mr. Perera being fully occupied in painting the frescoes 

 until early in July, the drawing in detail of walls, stairs, 

 &c, excavated since 1896 will be resumed and completed 

 next season. 



A hundred photographs and upwards were added to the 

 lengthy series of views of Sigiriya commenced in 1895. 

 It is intended to make this series exhaustive, in order that 



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