THE NAUBADA VALLEY. 39 



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 disturb- 

 ing or irritating them is almost certain to bring them down in 

 swarms on the offender. Their attack is of a most determined 

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

 fatal to a gentleman named Boddington, 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 Mr. Armstrong, who were 

 together in a boat below. After a while both gentlemen 

 sought protection by taking to the water. His companion, 

 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 poor Boddington, although also 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 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 other species of bees 

 common in Central India, both much smaller than the Bonhra, 



* A fiend in human shape has perpetrated a pun, in the visitor's book kept 

 at the little rest-house above the cliff, which will here be sufficiently obvious. 



