hot tropical climate. Even in mountainous countries
situated near the equator, as in the Himalaya and
Andes, wild roses are very rare, and only found at
great elevations, whilst they are unknown in the
southern hemisphere. I t is curious that this rose*
which is also a native of Birma and the Tnrban
Peninsula, does not in this latitude grow west of
the meridian of 87°; it is confined to the upper
Grangetic delta, and inhabits a climate in which a
wild rose would least of all be looked for.
We pursued our voyage on the 30th of May, to the
old bed of the Burrampooter, an immense shallow
sheet of water, of' which the eastern bank is for eighty
miles occupied by the delta of the Soormah. This
river rises on the Munnipore frontier, and flows through
Cachar, Silhet, and the Jheels of east Bengal, receiving
the waters of the Cachar, Jyntea, Khasia, and Harrow
mountains. The immense area thus drained by the
Soormah is hardly raised above the level of the sea, and
covers 10,000 square miles. The anastomosing rivers
that traverse it, flow very gently, and do not materially
alter their course; hence their banks gradually rise
above the mean level of the surrounding country, and
on them the small villages are built, surrounded by
extensive rice-fields that need no artificial irrigation.
At this season the general surface of the Jheels is
marshy; but during the rains, which are excessive on
the neighbouring mountains, they resemble an inland
sea, the water rising gradually to within a few inches of
the floor of the h uts; as, however, it subsides as
slowly in autumn, it commits no devastation. The
communication is at all seasons by boats, in the
management of which the natives (chiefly Mahometans)
are expert.
The want of trees and shrubs is the most remarkable
feature of the Jh e els; in which respect they differ
from the Sunderbunds, though the other physical
features of each are similar, the level being exactly the
same : for this difference there is no apparent cause,
beyond the influence of the tide and sea atmosphere.
Long grasses of tropical genera, ten feet high, form
the bulk of the vegetation, with occasionally low bushes
along the firmer banks of the natural canals that
everywhere intersect the country; amongst these the
rattan-cane, rose, a laurel, and fig, are the most
common; while beautiful convolvuli throw their
flowering shoots across the water.
The soil, which is sandy along the Burrampooter, is
more muddy and clayey in the centre of the Jheels,
with immense spongy accumulations of vegetable
matter in the marshes, through which we poked the
boat-staves without finding bottom: they were for the
most part formed of decomposed grass roots, with
occasionally leaves, but no quantity of moss or woody
plants. Along the courses of the larger streams
drift timber and various organic fragments are no doubt
imbedded, but as there is no current over the greater
part of the flooded surface, there can be little or no
accumulation, except perhaps of old canoes, or of such
vegetables as grow on the spot. The waters are dark-
coloured, but clear and lucid, even at their height.
We proceeded up the Burrampooter, crossing it