83 DR. HOOKER'S MISSION TO INDIA. 
4 feet 8 inch, the temperature was at 72° at 10 p.m.; and on the fol- 
lowing morning 71? 5’ in the deepest hole, and 70? in the shallower : 
that of the external air varied from 71° at 3 p.m., to 57° at daylight 
on the following morning. At the latter time I took the temperature 
of the earth near the surface, which showed, 
Surface . à aei s 
linch . l 57 
2-5 58 
I 62 
y ee . 64 
Elevation of Nourungabad, 535 feet. 
Feb., 14th.—At daylight marched for Barroon, on the banks of the 
Soane, crossing a deep stream by a pretty suspension-bridge, the áp- 
proach to which, straight as an arrow, reminded me of Hammersmith 
bridge from Barnes. "The piers were visible two miles off, so level is 
the road. j 
Barroon stands on the alluvial plains, just above the Soane, here 
three miles across, its nearly dry bed being a desert of sand, resembling 
a vast arm of the sea when the tide is out. The river-banks are very 
barren, no trees near, and but very few in the distance. The houses 
were scarcely visible on the opposite bank, and behind these the 
Kymaor range rises, for so the continuation of that Vindhya range is 
called, which I previously mentioned to you as running from Chunar 
on the Ganges to the Gulf of Cambay, parallel to the range I had 
crossed. 
The Soane is a classical river, being now satisfactorily identified 
with the Eramoboas of the ancients.* 
Barroon is 557 feet above the sea, showing a gradual descent since 
leaving Dunwah. Benares on the Ganges, somewhat further above its 
junction with the Soane than Barroon, is said to be 800 feet above the 
sea, exhibiting a much more rapid fall in this river. 
Walked along the river-banks, botanizing. The alluvium is cut into 
a cliff, ten or twelve feet above the bed of the river, and against it the 
sand is blown in naked dunes. The baked alluvium was very barren, 
* Hodgson tells me that the etymology of ete is undoubtedly Hierrinia 
bahu (Sanskrit), the golden-armed. Sona is also the Sanskrit for gold. I saw no 
traces of the precious metal in the sand, nor an Pcr more remarkable than 
mica, and the agates (Soane pebbles), for which the stream is celebrated. 
