354 GANGETIG HINDOOSTAN". 



Tincal is now difcovered to be the fubflance which produces 

 Borax. the fait Borax ; the borax under the name of Natron Boraci- 



catum is retained in our difpenfary, but I do not know the 

 appHcation. It is of great ufe in the making of glafs, and 

 making artificial gems ; it is employed alfo as a flux, and by 

 dyers to give a glofs to filks. 



Mr. Saunders fcarcely enters on zoology. He fpeaks of 

 the vaft herds of chowry-tailed cattle, my grunting ox, Hift. 

 ^adr. i. p. 24, tab. v. I willi I had called it the horfe-tailed, 

 for in the words of Mr. Boo/e, Phil. Tranf. vol. Ixvii. p. 489, that 

 part fpreads out broad and long, with flowing hairs, like thofs 

 of a beautiful mare, of a moft elegant filky texture, and of a 

 glofly filvery color. I have feen one fix feet long. They are 

 in great requefk in HhidooJIan, as flaps to drive away flies, and 

 alfo to ornament the ears of the ftate elephants. Mlian gives 

 a very clear account of this fpecies, under the name of Pb>- 

 pbagus *. 

 Thb River I NOW arrive at the banks of the Burrampooter, and crofs 



MFooTER. ,^^^ ^^^ facred land of 'Thibet. Here we muft make a long and 

 reverential flop ! in honor of a river fuperior to the Ganges in 

 fize, fuperior in extent of courfe, and fuperior in the num- 

 ber of nations which it vifits, and fuperior in a mofl: Angu- 

 lar aberration from its original fetting out, unfortunate only 

 in not pafling through a tra<5t known to the clallical learned 

 of remote and of prefent ages. It wandered through barbarous 

 climes, unknown, and undecided as a moft capital river, till the 

 recent year of 1765. 



» iEIiande Anim. lib, xvi. e. xt, tranfcribed into the Hift. Quadr. i. p.p. 27, 28. 



2 The 



