VALLEY OF THE SOANE. 58 
Chuparun, the next halt, is situated on an extended barren flat, 
1526 feet above the sea, and from it, the drop from the table-land to 
the plains below is very sudden. 
Feb. 10th.—At day-light, left Chuparun and descended the Ghat, 
or Dunwah pass, as it is called, to the great valley of the Soane, and 
to thelevel a little above that of the Ganges at Patna. The road, 
though very steep, is admirably earried zigzag down a broken preci- 
pice of gneiss, with a fall of nearly 1,000 feet in six miles, of which 
600 are exceedingly rugged and steep. The pass is well wooded with 
small trees; amongst them the Boswellia is conspicuous, now pushing 
its flowers from the leafless apices of the branches. Quartz and felspar 
are the prevalent minerals, and barren enough in every respect, except 
supporting this low ragged wood and abundance of Bamboo. Bombas, 
Cassia, Acacia, and Butea are likewise frequent, as is a Calotropis, the 
purple Mudar (much used for leprosy in India), a very handsome road- 
side plant, which I had not seen before, but which, with the Argemone 
Mexicana, was to be a constant companion for hundreds of miles 
farther. All the views in the pass are highly picturesque, though 
wanting in good foliage, such as Ficus would afford, of which I did 
not see one tree. Indeed, the absence of the genus (except F. in- 
Jectoria) in the dry woods of the plains I traversed, is very remarkable. 
The Banyan and Peepul appear (as the Tamarind, Mango, and Mahoua ?) 
but always p. 
Dunwah, at the foot of the pass, is 817 feet above the sea, and 
nearly 1,000 feet below the mean level of the high land I had quitted. 
Everything bears here a brighter aspect; the woods at the foot of the 
hills afforded better botanizing, and the Bamboo (B. stricta?) is green, 
instead of yellow or white. A little castor-oil is cultivated, and the 
Pheni« sylvestris (poor and stunted) appears about the cottages. 
I was amused with my servant here having a chillum, or earthen 
bowl to his hookah, but no cocoa-nut bowl on the stem, fashioning the 
latter out of two petioles of Ricinus in a way I can only explain by a 
sketch. 
In the woods I heard and saw the wild peacock for the first time. 
It is not to be distinguished from the tame bird in England,— 
a curious instance of the perpetuation of character under widely diffe- 
rent circumstances 
In the evening left Dunwah for Bahra, the next stage, passing over 
