VALLEY OF THE SOANE. 117 
Feb. 24th.—Following up the Soane to Pepurah, the country be- 
comes densely wooded, very wild and romantic. The Mahoua tree and 
Nauclea, Hardwickia, Terminalias, Pongamia, and Strychnos are very 
abundant; the Hhretia levis, a small tree, was covered with white 
blossoms, and the new foliage of a dark green, shining and viscid. 
A fine Strychnos forms a densely foliaged tree, thirty to sixty feet 
high, some individuals pale yellow, as if dying, and others deep green, 
but both equally in apparent health. Feronia Elephantum and Aegle 
Marmelos are very abundant, with various Leguminous and Rubia- 
ceous trees, Sterculia and the dwarf Phenix, which I have never found 
in fruit, nor, indeed, in flower, except at Dunwah. Peacocks abound 
in the woods, and monkeys. 
One of my garrys is broken down hopelessly, and advances on the 
spokes instead of the tire of the wheels. 
By the banks of a deep gulley here the rocks are well exposed : they 
consist of soft shales, resting on the limestone which is nearly hori- 
zontal, and this again, unconformably, on the quartz and hornstone 
rocks, which are confused and tilted up at all angles. In one place 
l observed the strata of the latter, horizontal for a few feet, and 
suddenly turned up at right angles, with an arc less than a foot in 
span. 
A noble spur of the Kymaor, like that of Rotas, here projects to the 
bed of the river, blazing at night with the beacon-like fires of the 
natives, lighted to scare the tigers and bears from the spots where 
wood and bamboo are cut. The night was calm and clear, with much 
lightning : the latter €— attracted to the spur, and darted down, 
asit were, to mingle i e with those of the forest. So many 
flashes appeared to cid the id that it is probably the rarefied 
air in their neighbourhood which attra 
Feb. 25th.—A woke between 3 and 4 o'clock by a violent dust- 
storm, which threatened to carry away the tents. Our position, at 
the mouth of the gully formed by the spur and opposite hills, no 
doubt accounts for it. The gusts were so furious, that it was im- 
possible to observe the barometer, which I returned to its case on 
rtaining that any indications of a rise or fall in the column must 
have been quite insignificant. The night had been oppressively hot, 
with many insects flying about, amongst which I noticed a Forficula, 
a genus very seldom known to take the wing in Britain. 
