Page:Narratives of the mission of George Bogle to Tibet.djvu/201

Ch.II] thermometer was at 58° morning and evening, and would creep to 64° in the heat of the day. Thus it was during the three days we stayed there. At Tassisudon it was about 61° in the morning, and 68° to 70° at midday.

Most of the trees and plants are unknown to me. Bengal trees are chiefly met with on the other side of Chiika — plantain, jack, bamboo, thick and crabbed blackwood. European trees and plants are mostly on this side ; some I have already mentioned, others are walnut, elderberry, holly, willow, ash, aspen-leaf, sweet brier, iroses, brambles, juniper, wormwood, sage, thistles, southern- wood, strawberries, primroses, ground ivy. The people cultivate turnips,^ leeks, shallots, water melons, musk melons, cucumbers, and brinjalls.

After the variety of uses to which the bamboo is applied in Bengal, one would hardly think it possible to discover any other; but the people in that part of the country where it grows have discovered two more. It answers as a vessel to hold anything in, and as a pot to boil anything. This last operation is performed by covering the bottom with clay, and then putting on the fire.

The bridges are either entirely of wood or entirely of iron. The wooden bridges are very common, and are from 30 to 70 feet long. On each side of the river four or six piles are built slopingly into piers of bare stones, so as each to project about a third of the way over. The centre beams rest upon the tops of these, which are first joined together with a cross beam dovetailed, and this forms the support of the planks. When it is necessary to make a bridge very strong, short piles are placed under the others, like the spring of a chaise. All the parts are fastened together with wooden pins, so that there is not a bit of iron about them. At Chuka the river is very rapid and broad, and an iron bridge is hung over it.' Five chains are stretched from one side to the other, and covered with laths and mats of bamboo, which form the floor. Two other chains are extended across the river at about seven feet perpen- dicular above the outermost of those on each side, and joined to

Bhutan produces probably the best turnips in the world.

That is, chain bridges. (See Turner, p. 54.)

Turner gives an engraving of this bridge, facing p. 55.