44 



Notes, chiefly Geological, of a Journey 



[Jan. 



sits* of many places in Europe. This is the only locality, where I did 

 not meet with the substance, so widely spread in the plains of India — 

 the nodular kankar. 



In the middle of the Pettah, at the spot where the two principal 

 streets cross each other, are placed erect and arranged in a circular 

 form, thirty-three large slabs of a compact limestone, covered with 

 numerous figures in basso and alto relievo, of the most exquisite execu- 

 tion ; excelling any in the few places I have visited in India, containing 

 such relics of the remotest antiquity, the Seven Pagodas not excepted. 

 The sculptures at Masulipatam, being cut in compact limestone, of a 

 very fine texture, are susceptible of receiving a delicacy, a kind of mel- 

 lowness in the execution of figures and friezes, which it is impossible 

 to impart to the coarse grained pegmatitic rock of the Seven Pagodas. 

 There is such anatomical correctness in the figures, and so much nature 

 and freedom in their positions and attitudes, that Gagginot himself 

 would have been proud of acknowledging them as his work. 



These sculptured slabs were brought from the ruins of a pagoda, 

 seven miles from Masulipatam ; and, by what I remarked in one of 

 them, they must have belonged to a more ancient building, than the 

 pagoda whence they were brought to Masulipatam. One of the largest 

 slabs (more than four feet high) had one of the two surfaces, convex, 

 the other, plane. On the convex one, were multitudes of figures, which 

 covered its whole space, representing processions, sacrifices of animals, 

 and other religious ceremonies, said to be those of the Jain tribe. On 

 the back surface was sculptured a reversed column, the pedestal turned 

 upwards, and the capital downwards ; showing that the two faces of the 

 stone had been sculptured and used at two different periods, and for two 

 different buildings.! 



* Doctor MacCulloch describes calcarious concretions found in banks of sand in Perth- 

 shire, which ' ' present a great variety of stalactitic forms generally more or less compli- 

 cated, and often exceedingly intricate and strange, and which appear analogous to those 

 of King George's Sound, and Seewers island." Quarterly Journal, (Royal Institution) 

 Oct. 1833, vol. xiv. page 79—83. 



+ The celebrated Sicilian sculptor in basso and alto relievo, 



X It is common to find sculptures on both sides of a slab, either as a frieze, architrave, 

 inscription, or other ornaments, in Greece. I discovered in the ruins of ancient Samos in 

 Cephalonia (one of the provinces tributary once to Ulysses), opposite to Ithaca, two sepul- 

 chres; the one having on the external surface of the cover the following inscription in 

 ancient Greek : Dionisia Vale, (Plate 17. fig. I) ; and, descending into the sarcophagus, I 

 saw, on the under surface of the same slab, some very old Greek letters, the remains of an 

 inscription, which I could not decypher. 



On the cover of the second tomb, externally, there was no sculpture, nor inscription of 

 any kind ; but, on turning it was seen, in very rude, and apparently very ancient, Greek 

 characters, the following inscription : Philostrate Attate Vale, (Plate 17, fig. 2). In 

 the island of Corfu (Phceacia, olim), at the summit of Capo Bianco (olim Lencimne) I found 

 a tomb-stone with the following inscription : Fulcennia Fausta, Annorum XX. Vale, 

 (Plate 17, fig. 3). On the reverse of this slab there were arabesques, lines, &c, indicating 

 that that side had been probably employed as an ornament in a more ancient building, 

 before it was used as a tomb-stone. 



