leaves at the ends of the branches of trees, and mat
them with a white web. Tigers, leopards, wild dogs,
and boars, are numerous ; as are snipes, pheasants,
peacocks, and jungle-fowl ; the latter waking the morn
with their shrill crows ; and in strange association with
these is the common English woodcock, which is occasionally
found.
The trees are of little value, except the Gurjun, and
Kistooma, a species of Bradleia, which was stacked
extensively, and used for building purposes. The
papaw * is abundantly cultivated, and its great gourdlike
fruit eaten; the flavour is that of a bad melon, and
a white juice exudes from the rind. The Hodgsonia
heteroclita, a magnificent climber, grows in these
forests ; with a climbing Apocyneous plant, the milk of
which flows in a continuous stream, resembling caoutchouc
(it is probably the Urceola elastica, which yields
Indian-rubber).
The ascent of the hills, which are densely wooded,
was along spurs, and over knolls of clay ; the road was
good, but always through bamboo jungle, and it wound
amongst the low spurs, so that there was no defined
crest or top of the pass, which is about 800 feet high.
There were no tall palms, tree-ferns, or plantains, and
altogether the forest was smaller and poorer in plants
than we had expected.
From the summit we obtained a very extensive and
singular view. At our feet was a broad, low, grassy,
* The Papaw tree is said to have the curious property of rendering
tough meat tender, when hung under its leaves, or touched with the juice ;
this hastening the process of decay. With this fact, well-known in the
West Indies, I never found a person in the East acquainted.
alluvial plain, intersected by creeks, bounding a black
expanse of mud which (the tide being out) appeared to
stretch almost continuously to Sundeep Island, 30
miles d is ta n tw h ile beyond, the blue hills of Tippera
rose on the north-west horizon.
Descending, we rode several miles along an excellent
road, to the bungalow of Seetakoond, twenty-five miles
north of Chittagong. The west flank of the range we
had crossed is much steeper than the east, often precipitous,
and presents the appearance of a sea-worn
cliff towards the Bay of Bengal. Near Seetakoond
(which is on the plain), a hill on the range, bearing the
same name, rises 1,186 feet high, and being damper
and more luxuriantly wooded, we were anxious to explore
i t : we therefore spent some days at the bungalow.
Fields of poppy and sun (Crotalaria juncea) formed
most beautiful crops; the latter grows from four to six
feet high, and bears masses of laburnum-like flowers,
while the poppy fields resembled a carpet of dark-green
velvet, sprinkled with white s ta rs ; or, as I have elsewhere
remarked, a green lake studded with water-lilies.
The road to the top of Seetakoond leads along a
most beautiful valley, and then winds up a cliff that is
in many places almost precipitous, the ascent being
partly by steps cut in the rock, of which there are 560.
The mountain is very sacred, and there is a large
Brahmin temple on its flank ; and near the base a
perpetual flame bursts out of the rock. This we were
anxious to examine, and were extremely disappointed
to find it a small vertical hole in a slaty rock, with a
lateral one below for a draught, and that it was daily