200 Miscellanies. 
fixes there in the shape of long, downy crystals of exceeding delicacy. 
From dantp spots it may be brushed off every two or three days al- 
most in basketsful. In consequence of all this, the ground, even in 
hot weather, is so damp,.that it is extremely difficult either to get 
earth of sufficient tenacity to make bricks (the country being quite 
destitute of stones), or, when made, to find a spot sufficiently solid to 
sustain the weight of a house. Even with the greatest care the ground 
at last yields, and the saltpetre corrodes the best of the bricks to such 
a degree, that the whole house gradually sinks several inches below 
its original level. Houses built of inferior materials, of course suffer 
much more; one, of which the inner foundations were of unburnt 
bricks, absolutely fell down whilst I was at Mullye, and the family in 
it escaped almost by miracle. My own house, which was not much 
better, sunk so much, and the walls were at bottom so evidently giv- 
ing way, that I was compelled, with extreme expense and inconvel- 
ience, to pull down the whole inner walls, and build them afresh ina 
more secure manner. From the same cause, a new magazine which 
government directed to be built, with ani arched roof of brick-work, 
was, when complete, found so very unsafe, that it was necessary to de- 
molish it entirely, and rebuild it on a new plan, with a roof of tiles. 
In such a soil, it will easily be concluded that swamps and lagoons 
prevail very much, of course, mostly during the rains, and till the sun 
gathers power in the hot weather; and, in fact, what has been above 
so much insisted on, as to the two contrary aspects of the country 
with respect to vegetation, may, by a conversion of terms, be equally 
applied to the water on its surface. In the cold and dry weather t 
is comparatively scanty, in the rains it is superabundant; and as the 
rivers in this district are frequently found to change their situations, 
so, through a long course of time, it has resulted that hollow bee 
being deserted by their streams, become transformed into what, dur- 
ing the rains, assume the appearance of extensive lakes, but in df, 
weather degenerate into mere mudd swamps, overgrown with a pro 
fusion of rank, aquatic vegetations, particularly the gigantic leaves of 
the Lotus, and swarming with every tribe of loathsome, cold-b ooded 
animals. Some of these lakes, during the height of the rains, com 
municate with their original streams, and thus undergo a temporary 
purification; but others receive no fresh supply except from * 
clouds, and of course their condition is by much the worse. Sew’ 
of the conversions of a river-bed into a lake, have occurre ; 
memory of the present inhabitants, or at least within one descen 
from their ancestors.— Tytler, on the Climate of Mullye, in Trans 
Med. & Phys. Soc. of Calcutta, vol. iv. 
