AN EXPLOEATION IN THE FAR EAST. 433 



before a plough can furrow the remote regions to the east of 

 Amarkantak. 



On the 1st of June we climbed the steep ascent leading up 

 to Amarkantak from the east, and rested there for two days. 

 I was still very ill and weak, and obliged to travel on an 

 elephant ; and though it was very tempting to linger on this 

 elevated region, where, at this season of excessive heat below, 

 the temperature in a small tent all day was delightful, while 

 at night it was cold enough to enjoy a couple of blankets, 

 the season was getting very late, and banks of clouds collect- 

 ing on the horizon threatened heavy rain, which might block 

 the way to Jubbulpur. So we determined to march straight 

 to that station by the direct road to the north of the Nar- 

 bada\ That frightful march still lives in my dreams. For 

 the first ten days we kept to the elevated country south 

 of the river, which we then crossed. The country to the 

 north is an utterly bare sheet of black .basalt, without a field 

 or a tree, or, I believe, hardly a blade of grass. Sharp 

 glancing flakes of white quartz alone relieved the inky black 

 of the horrible rocks. The sun was at its very hottest, and 

 heavy thundrous clouds now gathered round the sky, oppress- 

 ing the air with a sultry stillness far worse than the fiercest 

 hot blast of the earlier summer. Day after day we toiled 

 along in the fierce heat, pitching in a burning plain, without 

 a particle of shade ; and I really thought that before we 

 reached Jubbulpur on the 16th of July, I should have had to 

 sit down decently and give up the ghost. I had marched 

 close on a thousand miles in changes of camp alone since 

 I left the station in the preceding January. How much 

 more should be added for our explorations it would not be 

 easy to say. 



The monsoon burst a day or two after ; and in the comfort 



