200 Miscellanies. 



fixes there in the shape of long, downy crystals of exceeding delicacy. 

 From damp spots it may be brushed off every two or three days al- 

 most in basketsful. In consequence of all this, the ground, even in 

 hot weather, is so damp, that it is extremely difficult either to get 

 earth of sufficient tenacity to make bricks (the country being quite 

 destitute of stones), or, when made, to find a spot sufficiently solid to 

 sustain the weight of a house. Even with the greatest care the ground 

 at last yields, and the saltpetre corrodes the best of the bricks to such 

 a degree, that the whole house gradually sinks several inches belov/ 

 its original level. Houses built of inferior materials, of course suffer 

 much more : one, of which the inner foundations were of unburnt 

 bricks, absolutely fell down whilst I was at Mullye, and the family in 

 it escaped almost by miracle. My own house, which was not much 

 better, sunk so much, and the walls were at bottom so evidently giv- 

 ing way, that I was compelled, with extreme expense and inconven- 

 ience, to pull down the whole inner walls, and build them afresh in a 

 more secure manner. From the same cause, anev/ magazine, which 

 government directed to be built, with an arched roof of brick-work, 

 was, when complete, found so very unsafe, that it was necessary to de- 

 molish it entirely, and rebuild it on a new plan, with a roof of tiles. 

 In such a soil, it will easily be concluded that swamps and lagoons 

 prevail very much, of course, mostly during the rains, and till the sun 

 gathers power in the hot weather ; and, in fact, what has been above 

 so much insisted on, as to the two contrary aspects of the country 

 with respect to vegetation, may, by a conversion of tei-ms, be equally 

 applied to the water on its surface. In the cold and dry weather it 

 is comparatively scanty, in the rains it is superabundant ; and as the 

 rivers in this district are frequently found to change their situations, 

 so, through a long course of time, it has resulted that hollow beds, 

 being deserted by their streams, become transformed into what, dur- 

 ing the rains, assume the appearance of extensive lakes, but in dry 

 weather degenerate into mere muddy swamps, overgrown with a pro- 

 fusion of rank, aquatic vegetations, particularly the gigantic leaves of 

 the Lotus, and swarming with every tribe of loathsome, cold-blooded 

 animals. Some of these lakes, during the height of the rains, com- 

 municate with their original streams, and thus undergo a temporary 

 purification ; but others receive no fresh supply except from the 

 clouds, and of course their condition is by much the worse. Some 

 of the conversions of a river-bed into a lake, have occurred in the 

 memory of the present inhabitants, or at least within one descent 

 from their ancestors. — Tytler, on the Climate of Mullye, in Trans.. 

 Med. cf- Phys. Soc. of CalcvMa, vol. iv. 



