54 Account of the Cave ofBooban, 



birds of America, by adding to each drawing of a single spe- 

 cies a vignette exhibiting corresponding parts of the country 

 where the specimen is most plentifully found ; but having no 

 taste for landscape-painting, and unable to employ a competent 

 assistant for such a purpose, I with deep regret have relinquish- 

 ed the idea. I mention this to you, my dear friend, with hopes 

 that at some future period some one better seconded by pecu- 

 niary means or talents may still engage in the undertaking. 

 Sorry, notwithstanding, that as time flies Nature loses its pri- 

 mitiveness, and that pictures drawn in ten, or twenty, or more 

 years, will no longer illustrate our delightful America pure 

 from the hands of its Creator ! 



Art. ^.^-^Account of the Cave of Boohan, near Punduah, in 

 the Cossyah Mountains. 



In perusing a number of the Calcutta Jmirnal published 

 some years ago, we were particularly struck with the descrip- 

 tion of a remarkable cavern in the Cossyah Mountains, writ- 

 ten by M. Duvaucel, a Frenchman. We were desirous of 

 transferring to our pages that account of so remarkable an ob- 

 ject ; but we were deterred from doing this by the dread of 

 imposing upon 6ur readers for truth what might turn out to 

 be an entire fiction. We accordingly wrote to a correspon- 

 dent in India, to whom this Journal is under many obliga- 

 tions, to ascertain if there was such a cave, and if possible to 

 obtain a description of it. We have been accordingly favour- 

 ed with the following materials. 



Captain Fisher, surveyor of Sylhet, accompanied by Major 

 Watson, Captain Wildman, and Mr Sullivan, went to explore 

 the cave. They took with them two miles length of twine, 

 and fastened one end at the mouth of the cave, in order to 

 measure the distance to which they penetrated. The follow- 

 ing description of it was drawn up by the learned editor of 

 the Calcutta Government Gazette, from materials furnished 

 by Captain Fisher. 



The cavern of 13ooban is situated in one of the lower ranges 

 of the Cossyah Mountains, at the distance of about three 



