NO. 48.— 1897.] ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY, SIGIRIYA. 109 



But it was left for Sir A. H. Gordon, when Governor of 

 Ceylon, to initiate practical action for the securing of copies 

 of the paintings. 



At the desire of His Excellency the Governor, Mr. A. 

 Murray (aided by Mr. F. G. Pigott, both of the Public Works 

 Department) undertook in 1889 the uninviting task of 

 reaching the frescoes ; and, surmounting all difficulties, 

 climbed into the larger, or more southerly (' B '), of the two 

 rock "pockets" in which the only well-preserved paintings 

 still exist. 



In a short paper communicated to "Black and White" in 

 1891,* Mr. Murray thus describes the method then adopted 

 for the ascent : — 



Holes were jumped into the rock face, one above the other, as the 

 timber staging was carried up, and iron jumpers driven home and 

 secured with cement. To these the staging was lashed and rendered 

 secure. Once the chamber was reached a hemp rope ladder with 

 wooden rungs was made fast to stout iron stanchions sunk into the 

 floor of the chamber itself and made as rigid as possible by attachment 

 to the staging. The erection of the staging was by no means an easy 



matter It was found that the floor of the " pocket " was at 



too steep an angle to admit of any one sitting, much less standing. 

 Iron stanchions were therefore let into the floor, and a strong trestle, 

 or framework, made secure to them. On this was placed a platform, 

 from which the work of copying the frescoes was carried out. The 

 frescoes being painted on the roof and upper sections of the sides 

 of the chamber, the staging, as erected, made it only possible to copy 

 them by lying at full length on back or side.f 



Even so — cramped in position, hampered by the harsh 



June gale, and limited in time to a week — Mr. Murray 



brought away copies, done in coloured chalks, of thirteen (all 



he could reach) of the seventeen frescoes in " pocket " ' B.' 



I may be permitted to repeat here what I said last year : — 



As an heroic first attempt to reproduce the frescoes, carried out 

 under conditions which rendered full success hopelessly impossible, 



* No. 1891 : 'reprinted in the Ceylon Literary Register, 1891, vol. II., 

 p. 85. 



f A large sectional drawing hung in the Public Hall showed (to left) the 

 method of ascent employed by Mr. Murray in 1889, and (to right) that 

 adopted by the Archaeological Survey in 1896-97. — Hon. Sec. 



