44 



VV E S T E R N HI N D O O S T A N. 



caiifed by the lofty mountains of Ca/J^mere, keeping the cool air 

 of the north from rcfrefliing the parched plains. Between the 

 Mountain Chenaiib and the Behut is the vaft mountain Bember. It feems 

 Bemb£r. j.j^^ ^ purgatory to be paffed before the entrance into the Pa- 



radise of Hindoojlan can be accomplifhed. It is fteep, black, 

 and burned. The proceffion encamped in the channel of a 

 large torrent, dried up, full of fand and flones burning hot. 

 " After palling the Bember^'' fays the elegant traveller, " we pafs 

 "from a torrid to a temperate zone: for we had no fooner 

 '* mounted this dreadful wall of the w'orld, I mean, this high, 

 *' fteep, black and bald mountain of Bember, but that in defcend- 

 *' ing on the other fide, we found an air that was pretty tolerable, 

 *' frefli, gentle, and temperate. But that wdiich furprifed me 

 *' more in thefe mountains, was to find myfelf in a trice tranf- 

 *' ported out of the Indies into Europe. For feeing the earth 

 " covered with all our plants and fhrubbs, except Iffbp, Thyme, 

 EuRcPEAM " Marjoram, and Rofemary, I imagined I was in fome of our 



iR£Es. ii mountains of Auiergne, in the niidll of a forefl of all our 



" kinds of Trees, Pines, Oaks, Elms, Plane-trees. And I was 

 ** the more aftonifhed, becaufe in all thofe burning fields 

 *' of Indojlariy whence I came, I had feen almoft nothing of 

 « all that." 



*' Among other things relating to plants this furprized me, 

 *^ that one and a half days journey from Bember I found a moun- 

 *' tain that was covered v/ith them on both fides, but with this 

 '* difference, that on the fide of the mountain that was foutherly, 

 Indian, *' towards the I}^dies, there was a mixture of Indian and Euro- 



^^ pean plants, and on that which was expofed to the North, I 

 " obferved none but European ones ; as if the former had par- 



" ticipated 



