m front of us, and looking as if a gigantic letter W were
written in fire.
The night was bright and clear, with much lightning,
which was attracted to the spur, and darted down as it
were to mingle its fire with that of the forest; so many
flashes appeared to strike on the flames, that it is pro,
bable the heated air attracted them. We were awakenefl
between 3 and 4 a .m ., by a violent dust-storm, which
threatened to carry away the tents : this was no doubt
owing to our position at the mouth of the gully formed
by the opposite hills. The gusts were so furious that
it was impossible to observe the barometer, which I
returned to its case on ascertaining that any indications
of a rise or fall in the column must have been quite
trifling. The night had been oppressively hot, with
many insects flying about; amongst which I noticed
earwigs, a genus erroneously supposed rarely to take to
the wing in Britain.
At 8g- a .m . it suddenly fell calm, and we proceeded to
Chanchee (alt. 500 feet), many of the native carts
breaking down in their passage over the projecting
beds of flinty rocks, or as they hurried down the inclined
planes, we cut through the precipitous clay banks of the
streams. Near Chanchee we passed an alligator, just
killed by two men, a foul beast, about nine feet long, of
the mugger kind. More absorbing than its natural
history was the circumstance of its having swallowed a
child, which was playing in the water as its mother was
washing her utensils in the river. The brute was hardly
dead, much distended by the prey, and the mother was
Standing beside it with her hands clasped in agony,
unable to withdraw her eyes from the cursed reptile,
which still clung to life with that tenacity for which its
tribe are so conspicuous; besides these the two athletes
leaned on the bloody bamboo staffs, with which they
had all but despatched the animal.
This poor woman earned a scanty maintenance by
making catechu; inhabiting a little cottage, and having
no property but two cattle to bring wood from the hills,
and a very few household chattels; and how few of
these they only know who have seen the meagre furniture
of Danga hovels. Her husband cut the trees in
the forest and dragged them to the hut, but at this time
he was sick, and her only boy, her future stay, it was,
whom the beast had devoured.
This province is famous for the quantity of catechu
its dry forests yield. The plant (Acacia) is a little
thorny tree, erect, and bearing a rounded head of well
remembered prickly branches. Its wood is yellow, with
a dark brick-red heart, most profitable in January for
yielding the extract.
The Dhak was abundantly in flower here, and a
gorgeous sight. In mass the inflorescence resembles
sheets of flame, and individually the flowers are
eminently beautiful, the bright orange-red petals contrasting
brilliantly against the jet-black velvety calyx.
The nest of the leaf-cutter bee was in thousands in the
cliffs, with Mayflies, caddis-worms, spiders, and many
predaceous beetles.
We marched on the 28th to Kota, at the junction of
the river of that name with the Soane, over hills of
flinty rock, which projected everywhere, to the utter