wherein a light was burning. One gentleman in it was
awake, and on turning saw five men at his bedside,
who escaped with a bag of booty, in the shape of
clothes, and a tempting strong brass-bound box,
containing private letters. The clothes they dropped
outside, but the box of letters was carried off. There
were about a hundred people asleep outside the tents,
between whose many fires the rogues must have
passed, eluding also the guard, who were, or ought to
have been, awake.
CHAPTER III.
Ek-powa Ghat—Sandstones—Shabgunj — Gum-arabic—Mango— Fair—
Rujubbund—Storm—False sunset and sunrise—Bind hills—Mirza-
pore—Manufactures, imports, &c.—Climate of—Thuggee—Chunar—
Benares — Mosque —^Observatory — Sar-natb — Ghazepore — Rose-
gardens—Manufactory of Attar—Lord Cornwallis’ tomb—Ganges,
scenery and natural history of— Pelicans—Vegetation— Insects—
Dinapore—Patna—Opium godowns and manufacture—Monghyr—Hot
Springs of Seetakoond—Rocks of Sultan-gunj—Bhagulpore—Temples
of Mt. Manden—Coles and native tribes—Bhagulpore rangers—
Horticultural gardens.
O n the 3rd of March I bade farewell to Mr. Williams
and his kind party, and rode over a plain to the village
of Markunda, at the foot of the Ghat. There the
country becomes very rocky and wooded, and a stream
is crossed, which runs over a flat bed of limestone,
cracked into the appearance of a tesselated pavement.
For many miles there is no pass over the Kymore
range, except this, significantly called “Ek-powa Ghat”
(one-foot Ghat). I t is evidently a fault, or shifting of
the rocks, producing so broken a cliff as to admit of a
path winding over the shattered crags. On either side,
the precipices are extremely steep, and continued in an
unbroken line; and the views across the plain and
Soane valley, over which the sun was now setting, were