buttressed trunks, appear truly gigantic ; one measured
47 feet in girth, at 5 feet, and 21 at 15 feet from the
BORR, PANDANUS.
ground; and was fully 200 feet high. I could only
procure the leaves by firing a hall into the crown.
The rains commenced on the 10th of May, moderating
the heat by drenching thunder-storms, but greatly
increasing the discomforts of travelling, and so soaking
the men’s loads, that I was obliged to halt a day in the
Teesta valley to have waterproof covers made of platted
bamboo - work, enclosing Phrynium leaves. I was
delighted to find that my little tent was impervious to
water, though its thickness was but of one layer of
blanket: it was a single ridge with two poles, 7 feet
high, 8 feet long, and 8 feet broad at the base, forming
nearly an equilateral triangle in front.
Bhomsong was looking more beautiful than ever in,
its rich summer clothing of tropical foliage. I halted;
during an hour of heavy rain on the spot where X had
spent the previous Christmas, and could not help,
feeling doubly lonely in a place where every rock and
tree reminded me of that pleasant time. The isolation,
of my position, the hostility of the Dewan, and consequent
uncertainty of the success of a journey that
absorbed all my thoughts, the prevalence of fevers in
the valleys I was traversing, and the many difficulties,
that beset my path, all crowded on the imagination
when fevered by exertion and depressed by gloomy
weather, and my spirits involuntarily sank as I counted
the many miles and months intervening between me
and my home.
The little flat on which I formerly encamped was
now covered with a bright green crop of young rice.
The house then occupied by the Dewan was now empty
and unroofed; but the suspension bridge had been
repaired, and its light framework of canes, spanning the
boiling flood of the Teesta, formed a graceful object in
this beautiful landscape. I had rather, expected to