238 JOURNEY TO THE KYIVIOBE HILLS 



like this to the three months' flood of Midsummer, when 

 the country for miles will be under water ? 



The specimens he so arranged as to present a good illus- 

 trative Flora of the whole Eoad, gaining finally ' a knowledge 

 of the look of whole botanical regions which, however poor in 

 species, are highly instructive in other points.' From before 

 daylight every day, he was hard at work ; but the fatiguing 

 lack of a collector had its compensations. 



My specimens are well dried ; this is no difficulty, with a 

 little trouble, at this season : three changings drying the 

 majority : the difficulty is to prevent their drying too fast, 

 yet, would you beUeve it ? Wallich's and Griffith's plant 

 driers were in the habit of pressing once in paper, and then 

 spreading aU out in the sun : no wonder their specimens are 

 so contortuplicate. 



Detailed letters home were deferred, but he kept a full jomnal, 

 corresponded with the Governor-General and Mr. Colvile,^ 

 President of the Asiatic Society, to which his meteorological 

 observations were communicated. Of these the most remark- 

 able was on the night of February 14, 



when, on going out at 9 p.m., I saw the finest Aurora, on 

 the whole, that I ever witnessed, either N. or S. This is 

 a phenomenon supposed to be so rare in or near the 

 Tropics, that it kept me up till past midnight observing and 

 describing. 



This a<;count met with a good deal of incredulity ; the sceptics 

 ascribed it to forest fires, the appearance of which would be 

 very different to an observer so long accustomed to the Aurora. 

 Grievously as he grudged the time, he wrote an immediate 



^ Sir James William Colvile (1810-80), an Tndian lawyer and sociologist, 

 who, like Sir L. Peel, was knighted on being raised to the Bench in 1848 — he 

 was Chief Justice of Bengal from 1855 — snd on his return to England was 

 appointed Indian Assessor to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Coimcil. He 

 was distinguished for his knowledge of Indian systems of law and of scientific 

 and economic questions afEecting India, and was President of the Asiatic Society 

 of Bengal. 



