After spending a most interesting day at Cundeegurree we returned to Bhalmacottee, from whence my wife and myself came on to Cuttack on Saturday. I forgot to mention an animal that we killed; the natives called it a "goodee sampsnake," and said it was very savage and very venomous, though I imagine it was nothing but a guana. It is a sort of lizard, with a very tough scaly skin, about two and a half feet in length, head like that of a snake, forked tongue, sharp teeth, short legs, armed with long claws or rather talons. I have preserved and stuffed the skin. [Sidenote: INSCRIPTIONS--ANECDOTE OF AN ELEPHANT.] A gentleman has just been here who told me an interesting anecdote about an elephant. A friend of his bought one, and went out hunting with a large party. The animal behaved very well all day; but in the evening, when they were going to take off the howdah, the mahout called to the Europeans to stand farther off, as the elephant appeared to be getting uneasy. He had hardly spoken when the animal made a rush forward, seized an unfortunate native, and began trampling upon him with his enormous feet; a chuprapee who ran forward was seized by the elephant, and flung to the distance of many feet into the river; the beast then raised the poor wretch he had been crushing, and threw him into the jungle, where he was found with not a bone unbroken; every limb was crushed: of course he died almost directly. The elephant then ran off, and for weeks was the terror of the country round--going into the villages, tearing down the houses to look for corn or rice. At last he was caught, and sold to the king of Lucknow, in Upper India. I should mention that the only limestone hills in this part of India are those around Cundeegurree. Pooree, May 26, 1844. How little is known in England of what a thunderstorm is! At this minute (about ten o'clock in the evening) the rain is pouring down in vast sheets of water rather than in drops. For the last two hours the lightning has not ceased for a minute at a time, whilst the thunder has continued incessantly, varied occasionally by a tremendous crash which bursts immediately above the house and shakes it to its very foundation. Add to this the roaring of the sea and the howling of the wind, and some idea may be formed of the fearful noise now sounding in my ears. But the storm is, in one respect, more fearful here than elsewhere; at this station most of the European houses are blown down once in two or three years--a process which is anything but comfortable to the inhabitants, who are compelled to shiver through the night on the bleak sands, drenched with spray and rain, half covered with loose sand, and afraid to stand lest they should be blown away. May 29. [Sidenote: TEMPERATURE AT CUTTACK AND POOREE.]