230 " DR. HOOKER’S MISSION TO INDIA. 
March 23th.— Passed the mouth of the Soane, a vast expanse of 
sand dotted with droves of camels stalking along, and this being the 
eastern limit of their wanderings, I eyed the beasts with some interest. 
Soon after, the wide-spread spits of sand along the north bank an- 
nounced the mouth of the Gogra, one of the vastest of the many 
affluents of the Ganges, and of the few foreign rivers which visit India, 
having its source in lake Mansorawar, in the far-away plateau of Thibet, 
17,000 feet above its débouche here. 
March 25th.—Arrived at Dinapore early this morning, a large mili- 
tary station, sufficiently insalubrious, particularly for European troops, 
the barracks being so misplaced that the inmates are suffocated. The 
buildings run east and west instead of north and south, and therefore - 
ose all the breeze in the hottest weather. 
Sent the boat down to Patna, and proceeded thither by land to 
the house of Dr, Irvine, an old college acquaintance, and excellent 
botanist, from whom I received a most kind welcome. On the road, 
Bengal forms of vegetation, to which I had been for three months a 
stranger, reappeared ; likewise groves of Fan and Toddy Palms, which 
are both very rare RES up the river ; clumps of the large Bamboo (B. 
Balcowa ? ? Roxb, ), Orange, Acacia Sissoo, Melia, Uvaria longifolia, Spon- 
dias mangifera, Odina and Euphorbia antiquorum, and neriifolia? trigona? 
and Indica, all these were common road-side plants. In the gardens, 
Papaw, Croton, Jatropha, Buddleia, Cookia, Loquat, Litchi, Longan, all 
kinds of Aurantiacee, Tabernemontana, Plumiera, and the Cocoa-nut, all 
for the most part from their presence, and many from their profusion, in- 
dicating a decided change of climate, a receding from the desert north . 
of India, and its dry winds, and our approach to the damper regions of 
the many-mouthed Ganges. 
My main object at Patna being to see the Opium Godowns * (stores), 
I waited on Dr. Corbett, the Assistant-Agent, who kindly explained 
every thing to me, and to whose obliging attentions I am much in- 
debted. 
The E. I. Company grant licences for the cultivation of the poppy, 
and contract for all the produce at certain rates, varying with the 
quality. No opium can be grown without this license, and an advance 
equal to about two-thirds of the value of the produce is made to the 
* own is a store-house; hence a burying- pee is called the “ Parson’s go- 
down by the natives. 
