Himalayan Journals — Complete: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc. — John Shaqi
Himalayan Journals — Complete: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.Hooker, Joseph Dalton
History
Himalayan Journals — Complete: Or, Notes of a Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton
Himalaya Mountains -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Himalaya Mountains
_Balanites_ was not uncommon, forming a low thorny bush, with _Ægle
marmelos_ and _Feronia elephantum._ Having rested the tired elephant,
we pushed on in the evening to the next stage, Baghoda, arriving there
at 3 a.m., and after a few hours’ rest, I walked to the bungalow of
Lieutenant Beadle, the surveyor of roads, sixteen miles further.
The country around Baghoda is still very barren, but improves
considerably in going westward, the ground becoming hilly, and the road
winding through prettily wooded valleys, and rising gradually to 1,446
feet. _Nauclea cordifolia,_ a tree resembling a young sycamore, is very
common; with the Semul (_Bombax_), a very striking tree from its
buttressed trunk and gaudy scarlet flowers, swarming with birds, which
feed from its honeyed blossoms.
At 10 a.m. the sun became uncomfortably hot, the thermometer being 77°,
and the black-bulb thermometer 137°. I had lost my hat, and possessed
no substitute but a silken nightcap; so I had to tie a handkerchief
over my head, to the astonishment of the passers-by. Holding my head
down, I had little source of amusement but reading the foot-marks on
the road; and these were strangely diversified to an English eye. Those
of the elephant, camel, buffalo and bullock, horse, ass, pony, dog,
goat, sheep and kid, lizard, wild-cat and pigeon, with men, women, and
children’s feet, naked and shod, were all recognisable.
It was noon ere I arrived at Lieutenant Beadle’s, at Belcuppee (alt.
1,219 feet), glad enough of the hearty welcome I received, being very
hot, dusty, and hungry. The country about his bungalow is very pretty,
from the number of wooded hills and large trees, especially of banyan
and peepul, noble oak-like Mahowa (_Bassia_), _Nauclea,_ Mango, and
_Ficus infectoria._ These are all scattered, however, and do not form
forest, such as in a stunted form clothes the hills, consisting of
_Diospyros, Terminalia, Gmelina, Nauclea parvifolia, Buchanania,_ etc.
The rocks are still hornblende-schist and granite, with a covering of
alluvium, full of quartz pebbles. Insects and birds are numerous, the
latter consisting of jays, crows, doves, sparrows, and maina
(_Pastor_); also the _Phœnicophaus tristis_ (“Mahoka” of the natives),
with a note like that of the English cuckoo, as heard late in the
season. I remained two days with Lieutenant Beadle, enjoying in his
society several excursions to the hot springs, etc. These springs
(called Soorujkoond) are situated close to the road, near the mouth of
a valley, in a remarkably pretty spot. They are, of course, objects of
worship; and a ruined temple stands close behind them, with three very
conspicuous trees—a peepul, a banyan, and a white, thick-stemmed,
leafless _Sterculia,_ whose branches bore dense clusters of greenish
fœtid flowers. The hot springs are four in number, and rise in as many
ruined brick tanks about two yards across. Another tank, fed by a cold
spring, about twice that size, flows between two of the hot, only two
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