CHAPTER XII 



JOURNEY TO THE KYMORB HILLS 



Travel to the Himalaya was still impossible for a couple of 

 months ; the interval was employed in a botanical excursion 

 to the little explored hills of south-west Bengal, which culminate 

 in the Vindhya range further west, and to the valley of the 

 Soane, a southern tributary of the Ganges some 300 miles 

 from Calcutta. This is reached by the Grand Trunk Road 

 to Benares, seventy miles further on, which passes on its way 

 from Calcutta the Burdwan coal-field and the sacred mountain 

 Parasnath. 



Another coal-field was reported higher up the Soane river ; 

 Mr. Williams, of the Geological Survey, was proceeding from 

 Burdwan to investigate it. Hooker arranged to join his 

 travelling camp on January 28, after a sixty hours' journey in a 

 wearisome palkee, and from the upper Soane valley traverse 

 the Kymore or Bind Hills to Mirzapore, above Benares 

 (March 8-15), then to take boat down the Ganges to Bhagulpore 

 (April 5-8), and finally by palkee from Caragola Ghat, some 

 thirty miles further down the river, to Darjiling, some 140 

 miles, which was reached on April 16. 



On the way he collected everything that the dry season 

 produced in an elevated district which surprised him by its 

 signs of constant dryness. Even when sailing down the 

 Ganges he experienced a gale and blinding dust-storm, swept 

 up from the boundless alluvial plains of the river valley. 



So dry is the wind that drops of water vanish like magic. 

 What Cryptogamiae could stand the transition from parching 



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