126 THE KEPP. 



drink. A copious supply of fluid instantly flowed 

 from it, which I should not have distinguished from 

 pure cold water. A junk of a yard long, it is said, 

 will yield a pint ; and lives have been saved by the 

 seasonable supply of this plant, when travellers have 

 lost their way in the woods, and have been fainting 

 with thirst. 



THE KEPP. 



March 8th. — A friend having business at Pains- 

 town, about eight miles distant from Content, I ac- 

 companied him. We rode through a lovely mountain 

 country, chiefly laid out in pens or grazing farms, 

 well studded with trees, and broken by tracts of 

 forest. In the neighbourhood of Highgate, on the 

 side of a conical hill, covered with huge masses of 

 limestone and with small rubble, and crowned with a 

 tuft of Bamboo, I found some shells, especially the 

 pretty little new species, which Dr. Pfeifler has 

 done me the honour to name Bulhnus Gossei, but 

 which seems to be rather a Cylindrella. This was in 

 great abundance beneath the loose stones. 



In these mountain estates there are no streams ; 

 and the resource of the inhabitants is to dig large 

 ponds in the hollows, into which the rain-water col- 

 lects in the wet season. Owing to the long con- 

 tinued drought, these ponds were now very low, 

 some dry, and others reduced to a small space of 

 water in the centre of a large area of parched and 

 cracking mud. At the ooze which margined the 

 water, I was interested to observe the honey-bees 



