Miscellaneous. 157 



Qarra bing, infesting rivers swollen by torrents, which destroys 

 both men and cattle should they venture in. I mention it, as the 

 opinion is so general ; but it is probable that the sudden and myste- 

 rious deaths which occur in these mountain-torrents are occasioned 

 by what seamen call the " under tow " and " back water," caused by 

 the violent passage of water over rocks and deep holes. The body of 

 a person thus carried away is never seen again, at least in the neigh- 

 bourhood, and this total disappearance naturally strengthens the idea 

 of his having been swallowed uj) by some huge animal. 



An entomologist would find an exhaustless field of research and 

 discovery in the jungles of this country. The decayed saul trees are 

 tenanted by magnificent species of Prionus and Cerambyx ; the rocks 

 contain endless beautiful varieties of Coleoptera ; the deep woods, 

 everywhere during the rainy season brilhant with odoriferous flowers, 

 are enlivened by Lepidoptera of the gaudiest colours, and numberless 

 varieties of grotesque shapes in the IVIantides, PhyUia and Grilli, in- 

 fest every thicket ; while tribes of ants, bees and wasps atti'act at- 

 tention by the beauty and ingenuit}' of tlieir habitations and nests in 

 the forests. Of the former, one of the commonest species is remark- 

 able for traversing the jungles, and marching along the paths in pro- 

 cession two or three abreast, and of prodigious extent. Scorpions 

 and centipedes are fearfully common ; of the former, a species infests 

 caves and fissures in rocks, and attains such an enormous size, that 

 had I not heard the animal described by several people (of difterent 

 classes), and had reason to lie satisfied of the general truth of their 

 assertions, I should have looked upon the w'hole as a chim?era. In 

 dry, konkerous soils, the white ants are a scourge ; they appear, in 

 woods, to be a kind of vegetable scavenger, reducing to powder the 

 logs which lie on the ground in a short space of time. 



Fish are abundant in every largish stream, retiring in the dry 

 season to the deep pools, which are left when the main channel has 

 run dry ; but the Koles, by poisoning the water, destroy inordinate 

 quantities. The mahseer, and the little fly-taking Cyprinus, mis- 

 called " trout" in Upjier India, are not found in these lower latitudes. 

 Doubtless these running jungle-streams produce many undiscovered 

 varieties of fish, but unfortunately, to this branch of natural history 

 I turned no attention during my stay in the country. 



The climate of the Kolehan has been found to be on the whole 

 healthy, although the station of Chyebassa, which was unfortunately 

 selected humedly, and without suflicient examination and compa- 

 rison with surrounding spots, is not a favourable samjjle, situated 

 on a barren, gravelly plain, interspersed with brushwood, and near 

 piles of bare rocks. The heat during the day is excessive, but the 

 nights are invariably cool, and the air invigorating and exhilarating, 

 in sjjite of the temperature, owing probably to its peculiar dryness. 

 A mile only to the south-east, at the village of Tambore, the coun- 

 try rises in undulating meadows, beautiful in appearance as an En- 

 glish park, and infinitely cooler than Chyebassa. These advantages 

 in forming the cantonment were either overlooked or thought of less 

 note than the nearer vicinity of water, Chyebassa being on the banks 

 of the Roro. The Hos arc more free from disease than anv other 



