69 



WESTERN HINDOOSTAN. 



Syrastrena 



RiGlQ, 



GULPH OF 

 CUTCH. 



GUZERAT. 



adtly refembling that of an eel, fuited to a fpecies which is 

 entirely deftined to the watery element. They are met with 

 off moft of the coafts of India, at the diftance of twenty or thirty 

 leagues from land ; are never feen alive on the clement of earth, 

 but frequently caft by the furges dead on the fhore. M. D'Ob- 

 fonville, who has given an account of them, fays, they are from 

 three to four feet long, and reputed to be very venomous. M. 

 Bougainville gives an inftance of a failor who was bitten by one,, 

 in bawling a feine on the coaft of New Ireland. He was in- 

 jftantly affedled with moi^ violent pains in all parts of his body* 

 The blood taken from him appeared diffolved ; and the fide on 

 "which he was bitten became livid, and greatly fwelled. At 

 length, by the afiiftance of Venice treacle, with flower de luce 

 water, he fell into a great perfpiration, and was qmte cured *. 



On the weftern fide of this gulph was the Syrajirena regio 

 of Arrian, fertile in wheat, rice, oil of Sefamumy or Sefamum 

 orientale, Burm. Zeyl. 87. tab. 38, and Gerard, p. 1232, Bittyrum^ 

 or Ghee, as it is called in India \ Carpafus is a word I cannot 

 tranflate, but it appears to have been forae vegetable that was* 

 ufed in making the Indian webs. 



From C\ij)Qjigat, the fouthern extremity of the gulph of 

 Cutchi the land trends to the fouth-vveft, as far as Diu point. At 

 the former, commences the better known peninfula of Guzerat. 

 The weftern parts of which are mountanous and woody, the 

 reft extremely rich, and once famed for a very confiderable 

 commerce in their produdtions. The Ayeen Akberry, ii. p. 76, 

 ipeaks thus of its manu failures : " It is famous for painters,. 



* Bougainville's Voy. Eng. Tranf. 



carvers^ 



