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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2011
Among the Hindus of Southern India three modes of quarrying granite prevail. The first, and most common, is by the agency of fire. In this process the surface of the bare convex plateaus, or bosses, of the rock is covered with dry fuel, composed generally of bushes of the thorny Acacias common to the surrounding plains,—viz., those of the Babul and Kikar,—and proportioned in quantity according to the thickness of the slabs required. The fuel is set fire to, and suffered to burn, except in a few cases, until entirely consumed; when the subjacent rock will be found to have exfoliated in a cavo-convex flake, thinning off towards the edges, and varying in extreme thickness from six to twenty-four inches. The longer continued and more intense the heat, the deeper, in general, the line of separation. The flake is detached by driving small iron wedges underneath, and raising it with an iron lever: the separation is assisted, when the rock is refractory, by dropping a heavy boulder of greenstone or granite on its surface; or, when heated, by a sudden affusion of cold water.
page 114 note 1 Tableau des Terrains, page 83.
page 117 note 1 SirWilkinson, Gardner's Ancient Egyptians, 1st Series, Vol. iii., p. 250. Note.Google Scholar
page 117 note 2 Major Wheeler informs me, that in one instance he observed the natives pour water into the opening effected by the wedges, immediately after the stone had begun to give way. He then put his ear close to it, and heard the noise of the stone opening: a few more knocks on the wedges were sufficient to effect the separation.
page 119 note 1 Ancient Egyptians, 1st Series, Vol. iii., pp. 337 and 338.Google Scholar
page 120 note 1 Arundelian Tables.
page 120 note 2 Genesis, , iv. 22.Google Scholar
page 120 note 3 Numbers, xxxi., 22; Deut., iii. 11.Google Scholar
page 121 note 1 Ancient Egyptians, 1st Series, Vol. iii., p. 247.Google Scholar
page 123 note 1 Wilkinson, Vide's Ancient Egyptians, 1st Series, Vol. iii., p. 336.Google Scholar
page 123 note 2 Vide my account of the Corundum pits in Mysore, published in the Journal of the Madras Branch Royal Asiatic Society for January, 1840.
page 124 note 1 Hamilton's Gazetteer, Art. “Sravana Belgula,”
page 124 note 2 Ibid., Art. “Canara South.”
page 124 note 3 Pliny, , xxxvi. 12.Google Scholar
page 125 note 1 Ancient Egyptians, 1st. Series, Vol. iii., p. 329.Google Scholar
page 125 note 2 Sir G. Wilkinson's measurements are as follows: “Its foot exceeds, in fact, Beven cubits; and to judge from the fragments, must have have been about eleven feet in length, and four feet ten inches in breadth. The statue measures from the shoulder to the elbow twelve feet ten inches, twenty-two feet four inches across the shoulders, and fourteen feet four inches from the neck to the elbow,” (Thebes, p. 10. Note.)
page 126 note 1 Mahabalipur is supposed to be identical with the commercial emporium of Maliarpha, mentioned by Ptolemy in his 7th Book. Both Roman and Chinese coins have been found in the vicinity. A recent letter, dated August last, from my friend Mr. Norton of Madras, announces the discovery of a number of ancient coins on the spot made during a visit in which he accompanied Lord Elphinstone to this singular city in the early part of the same month. One he mentions, of Valentinianus, as quite distinct.
page 126 note 2 Ancient Egyptians, 1st Series, Vol. iii., p. 331.Google Scholar
page 126 note 3 Herod. II., 175.Google Scholar
page 126 note 4 Ibid., II., 155.
page 127 note 1 Bonomi on Alnwick Obelisk.—Lit. Gazette, 1245, p. 771. Note.Google Scholar
page 127 note 2 Ibid.