Page:Burke, W.S. - Cycling in Bengal (1898).djvu/68

( 50 ) seems to be a pretty busy fishing centre. Tha road is very well shaded from this point to Joynugger, date, palms and babul trees predominating. Joynugger, 32 miles from Calcutta, is a straggling sort of place. We pass large houses and extensive gardens nearly three miles before we get to the thana, which stands at the head of a small watercourse, on which there is considerable traffic between this place and Magura Hât Station on the Diamond Harbour line. Joynugger is also near the old bed of the Ganges, which has been dammed across and forms a continuous line of shallow tanks. There is a large bazaar here, a dispensary, several shops kept by marwaris and bunniahs, a grog shop and other institutions which denote civilization as understood in the mofussil. If we intend Joynugger to be the limit of our run, we can discuss such viands as we have brought with us at the thana, and take a saltee to Magura Hât, returning to Calcutta by train. A saltee is a sort of superior dugout, flat-bottomed and roofed in with matting: it is poled along by a couple of boatmen. Lying full length in this queer looking craft, and burning a little tobacco while we take in our novel surroundings, now winding through mangrove swamps, skirting little hamlets, gliding under quaint bridges of bamboo or stone, or through dense foliage that brushes the canopy overhead, emerging now and then into the open country (which in the rains is a vast sheet of water), the two hours journey to Magura Hât is over all too soon.

Kulpee is 14 miles beyond Joynugger, after leaving which the road bears away to the right. The going is good, and the scenery much the same as before,