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FROM PATNA TO DARJEELING. 333 
pears to slope upwards to the foot of the true mountains. It has all 
the appearance of an enormous bed of gravel deposited on the plains of 
India, and resting against the base of the hills; and the same may be 
said of the whole gravel deposits intervening between this and Silli- 
goree. The uniform level of the upper steppe is curious: does it in- 
dicate an ancient water-level? Abutting so abruptly upon the bases 
of very steep gneiss mountains, and descending at its outer edge so 
rapidly to the lower Terai level, it presents a curious contrast to both. 
This is a point to be attended to when I again, and at a better season, 
botanize the Sikkim-Terai. At this time it rains too hard to allow of 
my observing proper! 
From this steppe, the ascent to Punkabarrie is sudden and steep, and 
accompanied with a total change in soil and vegetation. The mica 
slate and gneiss protrude everywhere, and the latter is as full of 
garnets as are our old friends the Perthshire Braedalbanes, whereon you 
first taught me to explore (how keenly I now appreciate these asso- 
ciations !) A giant forest now replaces the stunted and bushy timber of 
the Terai Proper. The Careya and Shorea form the prevailing trees, 
with Cedrela and the superb Gordonia Wallichii. Smaller timber and 
shrubs are innumerable; a succulent character pervades the bushes 
and herbs, occasioned by the prevalence of Urticee. Large Bamboos 
rather crest the hills than court the deeper shade; and of the latter 
there is abundance, for the torrents cut a straight, deep, and steep 
course down the hill flanks. The gullies they traverse are choked 
with vegetation and bridged by fallen trees, whose trunks are richly 
clothed with Dendrobium Pierardi and other epiphytical Orchidee, 
with pendulous Zycopodia and many Ferns, schynanthus, Hoya, 
Saccolabium, Scitaminee, and such types of the hottest and dampest 
climates on the face of the globe. 
The Bungalow at Punkabarrie is good—which is well, as my luggage- 
bearers are not come up, and there are no signs of them along the 
Terai road, which I see winding below me. My scanty stock of paper 
being full of plants, I was reduced to the strait of botanizing and 
throwing away my treasures. The rain fell almost without inter- 
mission ; and on returning from collecting in the dripping gullies along 
the foot of the hills, I was obliged to lie in bed half the day till my 
things were dry. I had no change, having only too little room in 
the Palkee for my long self and a few of the most valuable instruments. 
