DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 



to forward troops from the Presidency to the 

 upper countries in a much shorter time., and 

 at a much less expence than could have been 

 done before. 



All native troops are now sent by this route, 

 but European regiments still go by the old 

 road, which follows the course of the river 

 Ganges, partly in consequence of the great dif- 

 ficulty of procuring supplies for them on the 

 new tract, and partly for the sake of the acco- 

 modation afforded to the sick, of transporting 

 them by water. This new road for upwards 

 of two hundred miles, from Bundbissunpore to 

 Sheherghautty continues the whole way 

 through one of the wildest forest countries im- 

 aginable. Captain Charles Rankin, and after 

 him his brothers, were allowed by government 

 a sum of money annually for keeping the road 

 in repair, and also a large sum for cutting down 

 and destroying the jungle, to the distance of 

 fifty yards on each side of it, without which, it 

 would have been dangerous in the extreme for 

 any small body of people to have traversed 



