206 A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF NEPAL. 



It is, perhaps, a little lower, less cultivated aud more intersected 

 with small streams ; and small swamps are met with in it here 

 and there. During the rains this tract is a waste overgrown 

 with long grass; water-courses are frequent and cut up the road, 

 and it then differs conspicuously from the adjoining plains in 

 beinof so highly malarious that only certain races, such as 

 Dhangars, who are inured to the climate, can then live there 

 with impunity. Whenever the Tarai is mentioned in the fol- 

 lowing pages, the word is used in a restricted sense to designate 

 only this swampy tract immediately below and south of the 

 Sal forest. 



About thirty miles northwards of Segowli, then, we are on 

 the edge of the great Sal forest, which rises suddenly, and with 

 a straio-ht outline stretches east and west as far as the eye can 

 see, on ground a little raised above the Tarai strip. From 

 Semrabasa there is a straight road through the dense forest for 

 ten miles to Bichiakoh. This portion is the Jhari or Bhaver of 

 the natives, aud forms the slightly ascending slope from the 

 Tarai to the Sandstone Ridge. With the exception of a small 

 stream (dry in the cold weather) which crosses the road about 

 three miles south of Bichiakoh, this forest region is quite 

 waterless ; but it is as malarious as the Tarai during the hot 

 weather and rains. The forest is composed mainly of Sal 

 (Shorea rohiista), with a few Simal or Silk Cotton trees 

 (Bomhax sp,) interspersed, and a comparatively slight under- 

 growth of grass and scrub. 



Bichiakoh, at the southern base of the Sandstone Range, 

 consists of a few huts and a substantial rest-house built on the 

 banks of a small stream having a shingly bed. Two or three 

 miles west of Bichiakoh, I came across a small but very deep 

 lake in the heart of the forest ; it was tenanted in winter by 

 great numbers of swimming birds. From Bichiakoh the road 

 lies along the broad bed of the stream above mentioned, for 

 eio-ht miles, to the summit of the Ohuriaghati or Sandstone 

 Ran (re. The banks of the torrent bed are at first composed of 

 lio-ht grey sand gradually increasing in height ; a little beyond 

 B^ichiakoh the sand is overlaid by conglomerate, which then at 

 first rapidly increases in depth and forms high cliffs on each 

 side of the road. The pebbles in this conglomerate section are 

 laro-est high up, near the surface of the slope which is pretty 

 thickly clothed with Pinus lonqifolia aud other trees. As the 

 Pass is neared the ascent becomes steep, and at the summit of 

 the range the road runs through a narrow gorge, probably 

 artificial, from which the name of Churiaghati is derived. 



A slight descent from the Churiaghati takes us again into a 

 shingly torrent bed, and on quitting this, the road runs through 



