'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎217] (350/458)

BU ILDING STONE.
r the surface of k
h says iiennedy, nl
]dus was perfectlyn|
a forming aplaceifie
that no vessel, ifi ;
the Shores of Sciifi
v to the cousin#
ption of a differewii
as fallacious
mein botli’ Bf
217
of great fertility, having been irrigated by the Canal of Sesostria; and at the
date of the Exodus it was a fertile and beautiful region,—really ‘‘the land
0 fpromise. ,, Mr. Stephenson has ascertained that the Sea shells in this district *
as well as those on both of the raised beaches in that neighbourhood, are the sama
as those now prevailing in the gulf of Suez : so that at a period comparatively
recent all the tertiary beds forming the bottom of the sea, and th®
contiguous land, must have been elevated from 12 to 18 feet, within less than three
thousand years of the present time,—the proof of descent previously to this ha s
been already given in the text.
NOTE B.
BUILDING STONE, p. Il9.
Qcjr principal quarries of these are at Versova, about twenty miles to the north*
where the shore is sheltered by a vast dyke of basalt formerly submerged*
The sand, which seldom extends more than a few inches down, is first removed ■
and the rock smoothed on the surface. A space about twelve feet each way is
next divided into slabs one foot square,—the grooves between them being cut
with a light flat-pointed singleJdaded pick. These are raised successively by a
tool something between an adze and a mattock, a single stroke of which is in
general sufficient for the detachment of each from its bed. The blocks thus cut
out and raised being thrown aside, the bed is once more smoothed, and the opera,
tion resumed till the pit reaches the depth of six or eight feet; when it being no
longer convenient to remove the stones by hand or basket, a new pit is cut. This