nodules of quartzy slate, covered with concentric scaly
layers of coal. These scanty notices being collected
in a country clothed with the densest tropical forest,
where a geologist pursues his investigations under
disadvantages that can hardly he realised in England,
will I fear long remain unconfirmed.
A poor Mech was fishing in the stream, with a
basket curiously formed of a cylinder of bamboo, cleft
all round in innumerable strips, held together by
the joints above and below, and stretched out as
a balloon in the middle, and kept apart by a hoop:
a small hole is cut in the cage, and a mousetrap
entrance formed; the cage is placed in the
current with the open end upwards, where the fish get
in, and though little bigger than minnows, cannot find
their way out.
On the 20th we had a change in the weather: a
violent storm from the south-west occurred at noon,
with hail of a strange form, the stones being sections
of hollow spheres, half an inch across and upwards,
formed of cones with truncated apices and convex
bases; these cones were aggregated together with
their bases outwards. The large masses were followed
by a shower of separate conical pieces, and that by
heavy rain. On the mountains this storm was most
severe; the stones lay at Dorjiling for seven days,
congealed into masses of ice several feet long and
a foot thick in sheltered places: at Pumea, fifty miles
south, stones one and two inches across fell, probably
as whole spheres. When we reached Dorjiling on the
24th of March, we found that the hail which had
fallen on the 20th was still lying in great masses of
crumbling ice in sheltered spots. The fall had done
great damage to the gardens, and Dr. Campbell’s tea-
plants were cut to pieces.
. POCKET-COMB USED BY THE MECH TRIBES.