take a sinuous course to the sea. In its climate and
botany it differs equally from the Gangetic plains to the
north, and from the hot, damp, and exuberant forests
of Orissa to the south. Nor are its geological features
less different, or its concomitant and in part resultant
characters of agriculture and native population.
On the 12th of February, we left Sheergotty (alt.
463 feet), crossing some small streams, which flow N.
to the Ganges. Between Sheergotty and the Soane,
occur many isolated hills of greenstone, better known
to the traveller from having been telegraphic stations.
The road-sides being highly cultivated, and the Date-
palm becoming more abundant, we encamped in a grove
of these trees. All were curiously distorted; the
trunks growing zigzag, from the practice of yearly
tapping the alternate sides for toddy. The incision is
just below the crown, and slopes upwards and inwards:
a vessel is hung below the wound, and the juice conducted
into it by a little piece of bamboo. This
operation spoils the fruit, which, though eaten, is small,
and much inferior to the African date.
The following day we marched to Baroon on the
alluvial banks of the Soane, crossing a deep stream by
a pretty suspension bridge, of which the piers were
visible two miles off, so level was the road. The Soane
was here three miles wide, its nearly dry bed being a
desert of sand, resembling a vast arm of the sea when
the tide is o u t: the banks were very barren, with no
trees near, and but very few in the distance. The
houses were scarcely visible on the opposite side,
behind which the Kymore mountains rise. The Soane
is a classical river, being now satisfactorily identified
with the Eranoboas of the ancients.*
Mr. Theobald (my companion in this and many other
rambles) pulled a lizard from a hole in the bank.
Its throat was mottled with scales of brown and yellow.
Three ticks had fastened on it, each of a size covering
three or four scales: the first was yellow, corresponding
with the yellow colour of the animal’s belly, where it
lodged; the second brown, from the lizard’s head; but
the third, which was clinging to the parti-coloured
scales of the neck, had its body parti-coloured, the
hues corresponding with the individual scales covered.
The adaptation of the two first specimens in colour to
the parts to which they adhered, was sufficiently
remarkable; but the third case was certainly most
extraordinary.
During the night of the 14th of February, I observed
a beautiful display of the Aurora borealis. I t commenced
at 9 p .m ., with about thirty lancet beams
rising in the north-west from a low luminous arch,
which crossed the zenith, and converged towards the
opposite quarter of the heavens. All moved and
flashed slowly, occasionally splitting and forking,
fading and brightening; they were clearly defined,
though the milky way and zodiacal light could not be
discerned, and the stars and planets were very pale.
When this display had lasted about an hour, the light
* The etymology of Eranoboas is undoubtedly Hierriwia Vahu (Sanskrit),
the golden-armed. Sona is also the Sanskrit for gold. The stream
is celebrated for its agates (Soane pebbles), which are common, but gold is
not now obtained from it.