116 DR. HOOKER'$ MISSION TO INDIA. 
rounded, resting upon others of hornstone and jasper. The camp was 
pitched by three small trees of Paper Mulberry (I take them to be,—a tree 
which I had not seen before, and which is unfrequent here). Following 
up the little stream, I gathered two species of Potamogeton and Vallis- 
neria, the latter forming an elegant green carpet in very rapid water, 
its corkscrew stems always on the stretch. Two ZEschynomenes abounded, 
with a Jussiewa and Cyperus, and several Grasses, and Sphenoclea (?). 
At the rapids, the stream is crossed by large beds of hornstone and 
porphyry rocks, excessively hard, and pitched up at right angles, or 
with a bold dip to the north: The number of strata was very great, 
and only a few inches or even lines thick : they presented all varieties 
of jasper, flint-rock, hornstone, and quartz of numerous colours, with 
occasional seams of porphyry or breccia. Hills composed of these rocks, 
similarly heaved, attest the granite range of Paras-Nath, from the 
Ganges to as far up the Soane as we went; and perfectly similar rocks 
occurred again on the Ganges, at the north-east of the same range, in 
the celebrated rocks of Monghyr, Colgong, and Sultanpore. They 
appear to form a deep bed, overlying the gneiss and granites above- 
mentioned, and thrown up by the great range. 
The numerous little islets in the rapids were elegantly fringed with 
beds of a Fern I had not hitherto seen (Polypodium), and, indeed, the 
only species which the Soane valley presents at this season. 
Returning over the hills, I found the Boswellia, Gmelina parviflora, 
with the common trees of the heights, also Hardwickia binata, a most 
elegant Leguminose tree, tall, erect, with an elongated coma and the 
ultimate ramuli pendulous, covered with bipartite leaves. All the hills 
were coated with a shallow bed of alluvium, containing abundance of 
agate pebbles and kunker, the former evidently derived from the 
quartz strata above-mentioned 
At night the fires on the Kymaor hills afforded a splendid spectacle, 
the flames in some places leaping zig-zag from hill to hill in front of 
us, and looking as if a gigantic letter W were written in fire. 
Feb. 23rd.—Start at daylight, moving the camp up the river with 
great difficulty to Panchadurmah. High north-west (the prevailing) 
winds generally commence at, or before, sun-rise, and become moderate 
at sun-down : in the narrow valley they blow with concentrated force, 
and are so loaded with dust that the hills close by are often obscured ; 
and on their subsiding, the atmosphere clears remarkably suddenly. 
