540 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO ITSQ. 



and were attacked with fevers, which, if neglected in the beginning, prove ob- 

 stinate quartans. Buxaduar lies high, but is overtopped by the surrounding 

 mountains, covered with forests of trees and underwood. In all climates, where 

 the influence of the sun is great, this is a never-failing cause of bad air. The 

 exhalation that takes place from so great a surface in the day-time falls after sun- 

 set in the form of dew, rendering the air raw, damp, and chilly, even in the most 

 sultry climates. The thermometer at Buxaduar was never, at 2 o'clock in the 

 afternoon, above 82°, nor below 73*^. 



Road to Murishong, May 22 and 23. In ascending the hill from Buxaduar 

 there is to be seen much of an imperfect quartz, of various forms and colour, 

 having in some places the appearance of marble ; but from chemical experiments, 

 it was found to possess very different properties. This sort of quartz, when of a 

 pure white, and free from any metallic colouring matter, is used as an ingredient 

 in porcelain. It is known to mineralists in that state by the name of quartz grit- 

 stone. The rock which forms the basis of these mountains dips in almost every 

 direction, and is covered with a rich and fertile soil, but in no place level enough 

 to be cultivated. Many European plants are met with on the road to Murishong; 

 many diiferent sorts of mosses, fern, wild thyme, peaches, willow, chickweed, and 

 grasses common to the more southern parts of Europe, nettles, thistles, dock, 

 strawberry, rasberry, and many destructive creepers, some common in Europe. 



Murishong is the first pleasant and healthy spot to be met with on this side of 

 Boutan. It lies high, and much of the ground about it is cleared and cultivated ; 

 the soil, rich and fertile, produces good crops. The only plant now under cul- 

 ture is a species of the polygonum of Linneus, producing a triangular seed, nearly 

 the size of barley, and the common food of the inhabitants. It was now the 

 beginning of their harvest ; and the ground yields them, as in other parts of 

 Boutan, a 2d crop of rice. Here are to be found in the jungles 2 species of the 

 laurus of Linneus ; one known by the name of the bastard cinnamon. The bark 

 of the root of this plant, when dried, has very much the taste and flavour of cin- 

 namon ; it is used medicinally by the natives. The chenopodium, producing the 

 semen santonicum, or worm-seed, a medicine formerly in great character, and 

 used in those diseases from which it is named, is common here. Found in the 

 neighbourhood of this place all the European plants we had met with on the road. 

 The ascent from Buxaduar to Murishong is on the whole great, with a sensible 

 change in the state of the air. 



Road to Chooka, May 25. On the road to Chooka find all the Murishong 

 plants, cinnamon-tree, willow, and 1 or 2 firs ; strawberries every where, and 

 very good, and a few bilberry plants. Much sparry flint, and a sort of granite 

 with which the road is paved. There is a great deal of talc in the stones and 

 soil, but in too small pieces to be useful. Frequent beds of clay and pure sand. 



