PART 3.] 
Ball: Building and Ornamental Stones of India. 
113 
with occasional amygdaloidal or irregularly shaped hollows, dispersed through its mass, the 
hollows being filled with earth. In its most imperfect state (I allude simply to the block 
kunkur which is available for building purposes) these hollows are more numerous, and they 
give to the rock a honeycombed appearance to which I have before adverted. It is found 
in extensive tabular masses or strata (generally accompanied by sand), the upper and lower 
sides of which are slaty and apparently imperfectly indurated; the induration, in fact, 
increases towards the centre, where it is frequently of the hardest description of the newest 
lime rocks, and of a crystalline character.” 
Owing to the honeycombed surface of the stone, it was found necessary to protect it by 
stucco from the direct action of the water and of the atmosphere. This rock has also been 
used, where readily obtainable, in the construction of buildings connected with the railroad. 
Block kunkur, similar to the above, is obtained in parts of the Jamna below the ordi¬ 
nary water level. Its more common form is in nodules, and in this form its occurrence is 
so general throughout alluvial soils in India wherever they exist that it were useless to 
attempt to indicate its geographical distribution in detail. 
The better qualities of kunkur contain 70 per cent, of carbonate of lime; from this down¬ 
wards the proportion constantly varies with the amount of clay or sand which is taken up. 
Besides its usual employment for mortar, it is, when burnt and powdered without 
slaking, an excellent material for hydraulic cement. To this purpose of course only certain 
varieties are applicable. 
VIII.— Sandstones. 
Several of the recognised formations in India afford sandstones admirably suited for 
building, and some of them have from very early times been largely drawn upon for the 
supply of materials for this purpose. 
Among these formations the great Vindhyan series stands pre-eminent. The difficulty 
in writing of the uses to which these rocks have been put is not in finding examples, but in 
selecting from the numerous ancient and modern buildings which crowd the cities of the 
North-Western Provinces and the Gangetic valley generally, and in which the stone-cutter’s 
art often appears in its highest perfection. 
The Lower Vindhyans,* consisting for the most part of shales and more or less flaggy 
limestones, and from the inaccessible position of the rocks in some of the principal places where 
they occur, as in the Son valley and Bandelkand, have not been worked to any great extent. 
The Kaimurs, however, have been worked extensively at Chunar, Mirzapur, and Purtab- 
pur, as well as at minor intermediate points. The sandstones are in general fine-grained 
and of reddish-yellow or greyish-white colors. They occur in beds which are said to vary 
in thickness—at Purtabpur and similarly elsewhere, from 6 inches to 8 feet. These beds often 
spread for long distances without any joints or fissures to break the continuity, in conse¬ 
quence of which very large blocks can and have been extracted for various purposes. 
In the Riwa group, overlying the Kaimurs, the sandstones are not so much used for 
building purposes. 
“ This is due partly to the beds being frequently coarse and harsh, and greatly subject to 
false bedding; partly to the fact that the Riwas do not occur much close to the Gangetic valley 
or to large cities. Some portions are, however, of superior quality, and supply all local wants.” 
Above the Biwas come the Lower Banders, which are described as being, for the most 
part, coarse, harsh, and gritty, and occurring only in thin beds. 
The following particulars are chiefly taken from Mr. Mallet’s Memoir. 
