348 MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS 



neigh piteously, and shew signs of anger, as 

 well as of great sensibility. " I have seldom," 

 he adds, " been more affected than I was yester- 

 day, by the sight of these unhappy creatures, torn 

 from the freedom of the Desert, and violently 

 separated from those they love." 



Our resident in Scinde informed me, that few 

 sights are more splendid than seeing the vast ex- 

 panse of waters formed by the river Indus, as it 

 flows through Scinde, nearly covered with the 

 Lotus.* The flower of this aquatic plant is gor- 

 geously beautiful, and the effect it must pro- 

 duce over an extent of many miles, must be very 

 fine. 



There is an Alder, growing on the banks of the 

 river Mole, at East Moulsey, Surrey, having a 

 girt of twelve feet. The stem is 45 feet in height, 

 and contains 135 feet of timber, besides what is 

 in the large branches. The tree is perfectly sound 

 and thriving, and is the largest of the sort I have 

 yet seen or heard of. 



The fact of Snakes being found in the sea, away 

 from land, has been confirmed to me by an officer 

 of Her Majesty's navy, who, in his surveys among 



* " Nymphaea pubescens ;" or, Indian Lotus, figured in the 

 Botanist's Repository. 



