VALLEY OF THE SOANE. 49 
Feb. 6th.—I started at 6 a.m., walking to Lieut. Beadle's (Surveyor 
of Roads) bungalow, sixteen miles on the same road. The country 
round Baghodur is as barren as Doomree ; but it gradually improves 
to the westward, where the ground becomes very hilly, the road 
winding through pretty valleys. Nauclea cordifolia is common, and 
resembles a young Sycamore. Crossing some well-bridged beds of 
rivers, the road rises a good deal, and measures at the highest point 
1629 feet above the sea. The Bombar, now leafless, is not uncommon, 
and very striking from its buttressed trunk, and gaudy scarlet flowers, 
swarming with chattering birds, which feed upon the honied blossoms. 
At 10 o’clock, the sun became uncomfortably hot, the thermometer 
being only 77°, but the black bulb therm. 137°. I had lost my hat, 
and possessed no substitute but a silken nightcap; so I had to tie a 
handkerchief over my head, to the astonishment of the passers-by, who 
probably never saw a white man walking in the sun along the grand 
trunk-road before. Holding my head down, I had little source of 
amusement but reading the foot-marks on the road; and these were 
strangely diversified to an English eye. The elephant, camel, buffalo 
and bullock, horse, ass, pony, dog, goat, sheep and kid, lizard, wild- 
cat, and pigeon, with men, women, and children’s feet, naked and shod, 
were all recognisable. 
The valleys seem to favour a better vegetation, though the soil is as 
barren as hitherto; for I passed a little Sugar-Cane and Banana; but 
with these rare exceptions the Bamboo alone betrayed the Indian soil. 
It was noon ere I arrived at Lieut. Beadle’s, glad enough of the 
hearty welcome I received, being very hot, dusty, and hungry. The 
elephant, I should have told you, was tired and foot-sore, so I had left 
him at Baghodur for Mr. Haddon, who remained behind to bring up 
the strolling carts, which awaited at Doomree our return from Paras- 
Nath. 
The country about Beadle’s bungalow is very pretty, from the num- 
ber of wooded hills and large trees, especially of Banyan and Peepul, 
noble oak-like Mahoua (Bassia), Nauclea, Mango, and Ficus infectoria. 
These are all scattered, however, and do not form forest, such as in a 
stunted form clothes the hills, and consists of Diospyros, Terminalia, 
Gmelina, Nauclea parvifolia, Buchanania, &c. The rocks are still 
hornblende, schist, and granite, with a covering of alluvium, full of 
quartz pebbles. Effloresced salts are frequent on the exposed rocks, and 
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