72 



INDIA. 



of raeloe mny be used as medicine instead of the Spanish 

 blistering fly. The fire-fly is very common in India, 

 and is one of the most beautiful insects of that country ; 

 tht.- trees are sometimes so completely covered with it, as 

 to appear like " pyramids of light." The most trouble- 

 gome insects are the flies, muskettoes, and chinches, or 

 IMI-S ; and the small worm which deposits its eggs un- 

 der the skin ; this laU is particularly troublesome. 



1 In our account of the fish of India, we must be 



equally concise as we have been in describing some of 

 it- quadrupeds, birds, snakes, and insects. In the 

 ( ianges there is great variety and abundance of fish ; 

 but of all the kinds found either in this river, or in any 

 other part of India, the most delicate and high flavour- 

 ed is the mango fish : it receives the name because it 

 appears in the rivers- while the mangoes are fit for use. 

 The Europeans in India esteem the most highly, es- 

 pecially during the time when -they are full of roe. 

 The other kinds offish in highest repute for their fla- 

 vour, by Europeans, are the cockup and the sable fish. 

 The coast of Chittagong is celebrated for oysters, par- 

 ticularly near the island of Cutubdia ; they are here 

 small, but of an excellent flavour, and are sent by the 

 inhabitants to Dacca and Calcutta. Oysters are also 

 exceedingly plenty in the rivers of Cochin, where they 

 are fished for in the same manner as the pearl-oyster. 

 Turtle are found in the Ganges, but small and of in- 

 ferior quality. The salmon frequents the sea coast, 

 and the rivers of Malabar ; and pilchards in immense 

 abundance are found on this coast. In the Alacananda 

 river there are a great many fish of the cyprinus ge- 

 nus, particularly C. denticulatuf, which grow to the 

 length of four or five feet ; there are some, it is said, 

 even seven or eight feet long ; these are represented as 

 very beautiful j the scales on the back and sides, which 

 are very large, and of a fine green colour, with a bright 

 gold edge ; the belly is white, with a slight tinge of 

 gold colour ; the tail and fins are of a dark bronze co- 

 lour. This fish is very delicate and rich in its flavour ; 

 and many of them are so remarkably tame, that they 

 take bread, &c. out of the hands of the Brahmins, by 

 whom they are daily fed. Alligators and porpoises are 

 common in the Ganges. The whale, which the natives 

 call the sea elephant, is sometimes seen off Cape Como- 

 rin. The sword fish is very abundant in almost all 

 parts of the Indian seas. Crabs are represented as 

 poisonous, or rather very unwholesome in the months 

 of October and November, in consequence, it is sup- 

 posed, of their feeding on poisonous aquatic plants. 

 The sea hedge-hog ; sea-star ; pipe corillino ; sea-net- 

 tle, &c. are common in the Indian seas. 



Mineralogy. The mineralogy of India has not been very carefully 

 or thoroughly explained ; there are, however, some parts 

 of it which are well ascertained, and are very important 

 and interesting. To begin with the Ghauts ; these moun- 

 tains are composed of a granite, in which the feldspar 

 and quartz, both of which are remarkably white, bears 

 more than the usual proportion to the mica, which is 

 of a dark green colour. The particles are angular, and 

 of a very moderate size. These are evidently strata, 

 but in general they are so very much confused and 

 broken, that the line cannot well be defined. In the 

 Coimbetoor province, however, the strata of the Ghauts 

 evidently run north and south, and are vertical ; they 

 are much intersected and broken by fissures, which ren- 

 ders the stone not of much use in building. Many of 

 the masses of rocks in the Mysore country, on which 



the almost impregnable fortresses of Tippoo were built, Statistics. 

 are of granitic porphyry, a,pd rise into high sharp peaks, ''^y^^ 

 Granite seems to form the principal mountains in Hin- 

 dostan, as well as the Ghauts ; it is fotJVid mixed with 

 the soil in the neighbourhood of Rajamal, a town situa- 

 ted on the south-west side of the Ganges, in latitude 

 55 2', but not lower down the river. Limestone is 

 found in many places, particularly among the hills near 

 the bed of the river Palar, in the vicinity of Arcot, where 

 it is found in the form of nodules. This species of 

 limestone is the chunam, that is used bv the natives 

 along with the areca-nut and betel. Chunam is also 

 met with in almost inexhaustible quantities in the Sil- 

 hit district of Bengal ; and from this district Calcutta, 

 and the most remote parts of the province, are sup. 

 plied with it. In the neighbourhood of Bombay a 

 good deal of chunam is made from shells, and the na- 

 tives are very particular in gathering them, and in 

 burning each sort separately, as it is said that the chu- 

 nam varies in its qualities and value, according to the 

 kind of shell from which it is made. The Madras 

 chunam is smooth, hard, and polished as marble. Most 

 of the public offices in this town are built of it. There 

 are marble quarries of considerable extent, which yield 

 marble of excellent quality, in the province of Ajmeer, 

 near the town of Pookshur, which is much employed 

 in building. Other stone proper for building, particu- 

 larly what is called the Theban stone, is very abundant 

 over Hindostan Proper, and is by no means rare in the 

 Decan and the south of India. In Bombay there are 

 large quarries. In one of the branches of the Ganges, 

 as well as in other rivers, a very rare stone is found, 

 which is regarded with much veneration by the fol- 

 lowers of Vishnou. It is described as very heavy, 

 commonly of a black colour, and sometimes violet ; 

 round or oval in its form ; a little flat, and nearly re- 

 sembling a touch stone. It is hollow in the inside. 

 There is only a small hole on the outside, but within it 

 is almost concave, and furnished in the interior coats, 

 above and below, with spiral lines, which terminate in 

 a joint towards the middle, and in many these two 

 points touch : ~(Sonnerat, i. 41.) In the province of 

 Oude, lapis lazuli, of an excellent quality, which sells 

 in England for nine guineas an ounce, is found. * 



The diamond mines of India have been long known Diamond 

 and celebrated. The most remarkable is that of Pan- mines - 

 nah, which seems to have been known to Ptolemy. 

 The Emperor Acbar, among his other plans of improv- 

 ing and enriching his territories, paid great attention 

 to this mine, from which he drew eight lacks of ru- 

 pees annually. The native chiefs of Bundelcund, (in 

 which district of Allahabad, beyond the range of 

 mountains extending from Rhotas to Ajmeer, Pan nah 

 is situated), as well as the last Mahratta conquerors of 

 this district, also drew considerable revenue from this 

 mine. Subsequently, however, it seems to have de- 

 clined ; for in the year 1756, they yielded to the Ra- 

 jah only four lacks of rupees. Of their present state, 

 nothing accurate is known. Besides the diamond mine 

 of Pannah, there is one other to the north of the De- 

 can, near Sumbhulpoor, in the province of Gundwana, 

 near the junction of the Hebe with the Mahanuddy. 

 In the year 1766, a journey was undertaken to this 

 mine, under the direction of Lord Clive, by Mr. Motte; 

 but he was not permitted by the Rajah to reach it. 

 From the information which he collected, however, 

 in Sumbhulpoor, we learn, that the " natives search in 



.Much important information respecting the ichthyology and the mineralogy of India, may soon be expected from the pen of our dis- 

 tinguished countryman Dr. Francis Buchanan. ED. 



