Page:Bulandshahr- Or, Sketches of an Indian District- Social, Historical and Architectural.djvu/101

 point of junction, a large masonry reservoir, called the Lyall Tank, has now been constructed by public subscription at a cost of Rs. 16,000. The first stone was laid by the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, Sir Alfred Lyall, on the 7th February 1883, when he reisited Bulandshahr for the first time after an interval of 26 years since the Mutiny, when he was attached to the district as a junior civilian, and greatly distinguished himself in the military operations against the rebels. The aqueduct, by which water will be obtained from a distributary of the Ganges Canal, about a mile distant, has not yet been commenced, but an allotment of Rs. 2,500 has been made for it in the Municipal Budget, and the tank itself is finished. It measures 230 feet square and is 14 feet deep. The whole of the earth procured by the excavation has been utilized in raising the level of the streets and open places in the town, thereby greatly improving its drainage and sanitation. Tiers of steps and platforms reach from the top to the floor of the tank, and on each side are broken up into three compartments by dwarf towers, based on the lowest platform and rising to the level of the outer margin, with which they are connected by screen walls. The top of these is broadened out by stone slabs over a bold cornice, so as to form footpaths for reaching the roof of the towers, which makes either a pleasant seat or a convenient projection for bathers to dive from. The central compartment, on the east side, has no steps, but is cut back into a long paved slope with flanking walls for watering cattle.

West of the tank is the Moti Bagh, an area of eleven acres, lately levelled and enclosed at a cost of Rs. 6,150, and now in process of conversion into a public garden. Part of it was formerly a broad and deep ravine, which brought down into the town the drainage of all the surrounding country and passed it out into the river through the arch which has been already mentioned, as now making the river gate of Chaudhri Lachhman Siṅh's Dharmsála. On the edge of this ravine was an extensive mound, known as the Moti Bazár, which, many hundreds of years ago, had been an inhabited site. In levelling it to fill up the ravine, besides other minor curiosities, a clay seal was found inscribed with the owner's name, apparently of the fifth century A. D., together with an immense number of large bricks, a cubit long, and half a cubit broad, and many curious specimens of a local terracotta manufactory. These objects are mostly of a cocoanut shape, and seem to have been intended either for vases or for architectural finials. A