240 JOUENEY TO THE KYMOEE HILLS 



vegetation at the same epoch. And he cites the Cycads especi- 

 ally (Himalayan Journals, i. 8) in support of the statement that, 



finding similar fossil plants at places widely different in lati- 

 tude, and hence in climate, is, in the present state of our 

 knowledge, rather an argument against than for their having 

 existed contemporaneously. 



Later (p. 44) he insists on the point again, contrasting his own 

 difficulty in identifying the impressions of living leaves in 

 the lime- deposits of a spring, with the fact that geologists, 

 unskilled in botany, see no difficulty in referring equally 

 imperfect remains of extinct vegetables to existing genera. 



The ascent of Parasnath, the sacred mountain of the Jains, 

 was of vivid interest : 



We went thither on two elephants with a blanket cart and 

 some provisions ; but the jungle was so dense, the elephants 

 having to break away the branches of the trees with their 

 trunks, that we did not arrive till 2 p.m. I got many plants 

 on the route, the elephant getting several inaccessible species 

 for m^e. You will hardly believe that a well-wooded mountain 

 of (reputed) 7000 feet (but I expect only 5000) could rise out 

 of India all but within the Tropics, and present neither Palm, 

 Tree-Fern, Lycopodium, Scitamineous, Aroid, Piperaceous 

 plant or Orchid-epiphyte of any consequence. No moss or 

 Hepatica below 4000 feet, on trunk or rock, no foliaceous 

 Lichen below that, and scarcely above, and not one fleshy 

 Fung-US. Such, however, is the parching effect of the N.W. 

 dry winds, that the soil throughout is crumbly and the 

 Cryptogs. at top, consisting of a few crust-Lichens and mosses 

 (no Hepaticae seen), are withered and brown and covered 

 with a Selaginella equally dead. 



There are six tops to Paras-nath, rising from a curved 

 ridge, all very steep and rocky, and each crowned with a 

 platform and little white Temple, of the size of your Temple 

 of Victory. There is, besides, a large temple, a little below 

 the ridge on the N. face, sunk in a hollow, very picturesque, 

 square with a large dome and four spires at the angles. All 

 are neatly covered with white lime. In the little apical ones 

 I was surprised to find a slab of stone with the feet of Boodh 

 engraved in relief, whilst the larger had many marble slabs, 



