42 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



away the best part of a day in the contemplation of 

 this marvellous'^ scene of beauty. 



The only drawback to the peaceful enjoyment of 

 the scene is the presence of numerous colonies of bees, 

 whose combs are to be seen attached to most of the 

 jutting ledges of the rocks on the left bank. In cold 

 weather these insects seem to be inoffensive ; but from 

 about March to July, anything disturbing or irritating 

 them is almost certain to brinof them down in swarms 

 on the offender. Their attack is of a most determined 

 character ; and, not long before my visit, had proved 

 fatal to an engineer employed in sounding the river for 

 a projected crossing of the railway. It is believed that, 

 on this occasion, the bees were roused by some of his 

 companions above shooting at the blue rock pigeons that 

 build in the cliffs, on which they attacked furiously this 

 gentleman and a friend who were together in a boat 

 below. After a while both gentlemen sought protection 

 by taking to the water. The one by taking long dives 

 under water, managed to elude the angry insects and 

 hide in one of the few accessible clefts of the rock ; but 

 the other, although a practised swimmer, was never lost 

 sight of by the exasperated creatures, and in the end 

 was drowned and carried down the stream. He lies 

 buried above the cliff, under a marble slab cut out from 

 the rock beneath which he met his death. 



The species of bee that frequents these rocks is, I 

 believe, the common Bonhrd [Apis dorsata), which 

 attaches its large pendent combs indiscriminately to such 

 rocks and to the boughs of forest trees. There are two 



* A fiend in human shape has perpetrated a pun, in the visitors' 

 book kept at tlie little rest-house above the clitf, which will here be 

 sufficiently obvious. 



