EAVINE DEER AND BLACK BUCK HUNTING. 81 



fias never been discolored by smoke and soot ; and I suspect its 

 very cleanliness, purity, and lack of Hindoo paint is v^^hat renders 

 it so all-powerful that ninety-nine travellers out of a hundred fall 

 down before it, Taj-struck, and the hundredth who survives is set 

 down as a dull, soidless, and ignorant fault-finder, destitute of taste 

 and appreciation. Would the Taj be esteemed so exquisitely beau- 

 tiful and so perfect in plan if it were built of brick or limestone, 

 instead of white marble ? The inside of the structure is wonder- 

 fully pretty, with its lotuses and lilies of precious stones. The 

 cost of the Taj is entirely satisfactory, and as a monument to Love 

 it is immense ; but to my mind there are many buildings more 

 grand, graceful, and imposing than this, and hundreds which seem 

 more sacred. 



The North- West Provinces offer but a barren field for the bot- 

 anist or entomologist, at least in the dry season. I did not see a 

 single sei-pent or lizard, nor any insects worth mentioning during 

 my stay there. As for the flora of the country I could tell practi- 

 cally nothing, for, owing to the total lack of rain during the winter 

 and spring months, vegetation is only conspicuous by its scantiness. 



The tree wlaich figures most conspicuously on the plains of the 

 Dooab is the mango (Hindoo, " aam," Mangifera Indica), whose 

 thick and ample green top affords most grateful shade. These 

 trees are grown from cuttings planted by the Hindoos, who never 

 think of cutting down a tree of any kind, or even cutting off long 

 branches, and refuse to learn pruning and forestry. They encour- 

 age the planting of these excellent shade-trees, and the land occu- 

 pied by the mango-groves is exempt from taxation. 



The thorny acacia, or "bubool" {Acacia Arabica), is the com- 

 monest tree in the North- West Provinces, but owing to the fact 

 that the natives feed their goats on its leaves and seed-pods, and 

 the natural scantiness of its foliage, this tree, which is a very small 

 one, always has a stunted, bare, and scraggy appearance. This is 

 the tree which furnishes the gum arable of commerce. It grows 

 in the driest districts, apparently in defiance of drought, and is 

 common in the "jungles" of Northern India along with Butea 

 frondosa, which possesses a gorgeous, though odorless, scarlet 

 flower. We found it in bloom at Auraiya, on April 1st, its branches 

 loaded with flowers. 



The " neem " (Azadirachta Indica), is found here and there, a 

 small tree of which every part seems to possess some valuable 

 medicinal property. The bruised leaves are used in healing sores, 

 6 



