no 
Records of the Geological Survey of India. 
[vol. VII. 
The following passage will give some idea of the elaborate character of these mosaics: 
“A single flower in the screen around the tombs, or Sarcophagi, contains a hundred stones, 
each cut to the exact shape necessary, and highly polished ; and in the interior alone of the 
building, there are several hundred flowers, each containing a like number of stones.” 
In various parts of the basaltic areas of India varieties of agates and jasper occur in 
considerable abundance, and are collected aud sold to lapidaries, who cut them into useful 
and ornamental articles; but they are not much used for mural decoration or mosaics at the 
present day. In the valley of the Narbada and Sone such pebbles are found somewhat 
abundantly. I believe there is no case of the original matrix, the basalt, being worked for 
them, but the gravelly beds of some of the tertiary rocks, which consist mainly of debris 
from the basalt, are mined in several places. In Western India the mines at Ruttunpur, east 
of Broach, are the principal. The stones found thero are sold to the lapidaries of Cambay and 
Jabalpur. 
In the Rajmehal Hills very beautiful agates, common opal, and other varieties of silica 
are abundant, but are not, so far as I know, sought after or collected. 
At Vellum, in Trichinopoli, some tertiary grits contain pebbles of rock crystal, smoky 
quartz, cairngorm and amethyst, which arc cut by the local lapidaries. 
References. 
Voysey, Asiatic Researches, Vol. XV, p. 429. 
Blanford, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, Vol. VI, p. 219. 
King, Mem. Geol. Surv., India, Vol. IV, p. 370. 
Keene on the Stone Industries of Agra, 1873. 
VII.— Limestone. 
Under the head of Madble I have separately described those varieties of limestone 
which, from their crystalline structure and ornamental appearance, are entitled to be so 
dignified. In the present section I shall confine myself to an account of the chiefly, but not 
exclusively non-crystalline varieties which are used or are available for use as building 
materials or for the manufacture of lime. 
By far tbe most important deposits of rock limestone in the northern portion of the 
peninsula of India are those which occur in the Vindhyan series. In the lower Vindhyans 
occurs a group of tliin-bedded limestones which in the places where they are best exposed 
have a total of several hundred feet in thickness. At Eotasgarh it is chiefly quarried for 
burning. It is brought down tbe Sone in boats and into tbe Ganges, by which means it is 
distributed over a considerable area of country. When the Sone canal is opened this trade 
will probably become more regular, and it is possible that Calcutta may be supplied from this 
source, a contingency much to be desired in view of the great expense of Sylbet lime, which 
is that which is principally used at present. 
Attention has been drawn to this limestone too as being, within a reasonable distance, 
the only source of a material of steady, known composition capable of affording a suitable 
flux for employment in the proposed iron-works in the Raniganj country. 
It should be mentioned, however, that tbe steady composition can only be depended on 
in individual layers, as the proportion of associated argillaceous matter varies in successive 
layers. 
This rock has been traced as far west as tbe neighbourhood of Katni on the Jabalpur 
line; at Murwara, dec., quarries have been opened where tbe Jabalpur railway crosses tbe 
outcrop. 
