Page:Himalayan journals; or, Notes of a naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, &c- Volume I.djvu/65

  CHAPTER II. Doomree — Vegetation of table-land — Lieutenant Beadle — Birds — Hot springs of Soorujkoond — Plants near them — Shells in them — Cholera-tree — Olibanum — Palms, form of — Dunwah Pass — Trees, native and planted — Wild peacock — Poppy fields— Geography and geology of Behar and Central India— Toddy- palm — Ground, temperature of — Barroon — Temperature of plants — Lizard — Cross the Soane — Sand, ripple-marks on — Kymore hills — Ground, tempera- ture of — Limestone — Rotas fort and palace — Nitrate of lime — Change of climate — Lime stalagmites, enclosing leaves — Fall of Soane — Spiders, &c. — Scenery and natural history of upper Soane valley — Havdwickia binata — Bhel fruit — Dust-storm — Alligator — Catechu — Cochlospermum — Leaf -bellows — Scorpions — Tortoises — Florican — Limestone spheres — Coles — Tiger-hunt — Robbery.

In the evening we returned to our tamarind tree, and the next morning regained the trunk road, following it to the dawk bungalow of Doomree. On the way I found the Ccesalpinia paniculata, a magnificent climber, festooning the trees with its dark glossy foliage and gorgeous racemes of orange blossoms. Receding from the mountain, the country again became barren : at Doomree the hills were of crystalline rocks, chiefly quartz and gneiss ; no palms or large trees of any kind appeared. The spear-grass abounded, and a detestable nuisance it was, its long awns and husked seed working through trowsers and stockings.

Balanites was not uncommon, forming a low thorny bush, with jEgle marmelos and Feronia elephantum. Having rested the tired elephant, we pushed on in the evening to the next stage, Baghocla, arriving there at 3 a.m., and after a few hours' rest, I walked to the