measured was forty feet long and eleven above the
ground; its edges were rounded, and its surface flaked
off in pieces a foot broad and a quarter of an inch
thick. Trees and brushwood often conceal the spaces
between these fragments, and afford dens for bears and
leopards, into which man cannot follow them.
Sitting in the cool evenings on one of these great
blocks, and watching the Himalayan glaciers glowing
with the rays of sunset, appearing to change in form
and dimensions with the failing shadows, it was
impossible to refrain from speculating on the
possibility of these great boulders heaped on the
Himalayan-ward face of the Khasia range, having been
transported thither by ice at some former period;
especially as the Mont Blanc granite, in crossing the
lake of Geneva to the Jura, must have performed a
hardly less wonderful ice journey: but this hypothesis
is clearly untenable; and unparalleled in our experience
as the results appear, if attributed to denudation and
weathering alone, we are yet compelled to refer them
to these causes. The further we travel, and the longer
we study, the more positive becomes our conviction
that the part played by these great agents in sculpturing
the surface of our planet, is as yet but half
recognised.
We returned on the 7th of August to Churra, wherq
we employed ourselves during the rest of the month in
collecting and studying the plants of the neighbourhood.
We hired a large and good bungalow, in which
three immense coal fires were kept up for drying plants
and papers, and fifteen men were always employed,
some in changing, and some in collecting, from morning
till night. The coal was procured within a mile of
our door, and cost about six shillings a month; it was
of the finest quality, and gave great heat and few ashes.
Torrents of rain descended almost daily, twelve inches
in as many hours being frequently registered.
Though the temperature in August rose to 75°, we
never felt a fire oppressive," owing to the constant
damp, and absence of sun. The latter, when it broke
through the clouds, shone powerfully, raising the
thermometer 30° in as many minutes. On such
occasions, hot blasts of damp wind ascend the valleys,
and impinge suddenly against different houses on the
flat, giving rise to extraordinary differences between
the mean daily temperatures of places not half a mile
apart.
On the 4th of September we started for the village
of Chela, which lies west from Churra, at the embouchure
of the Boga-panee on the Jheels. The path
runs through very tropical vegetation, with pepper,
ginger, maize, and Betel palm, cultivated around small
cottages, which are only distinguishable in the forest
by their yellow thatch of dry Rattan leaves.
Hot gusts of wind blow up the valleys, alternating
with clouds and mists, and it was curious to watch the
effects of the latter in stilling the voices of insects and
birds. Common crows and vultures haunt the villages,
but these, and all other large birds, are very rare in
the Khasia. A very few hawks are occasionally seen,
also sparrows and kingfishers, and I once heard a
cuckoo; pheasants are sometimes shot, but we never