NATURALIST IN INDIA. 123 



Thick, bushy jungle alternates with large open spaces, which 

 are cultivated, or overgrown with grass. The Sewalik range > 

 and the Peer Pingal stand forth in their still grandeur, the 

 former only a few miles distant, the latter seen bounding the 

 horizon, capped with a broad covering of snow. We passed 

 the little villages of Koree and Eussool. The latter stands 

 conspicuous on a spur which runs from the Himalayas into the 

 plain, and ends in the jungle of ChilHanwaUah, so memorable 

 in Indian annals. Two years had not suf&ced to obliterate all 

 traces of the sad struggle, for the first memorial we encoun- 

 tered was the graveyard, a little square, not 30 yards either 

 way : there, in rows, lay fifty-three ofScers and several hundred 

 men. It is said to have been the spot where the commander 

 of the forces stood during the action, the ill-fated hillock over 

 which roUed the round shot which called forth the ill-judged 

 order for an advance. On our left, at a little distance, was 

 the village, and in front and between us stretched taU and 

 bushy thickets, intersected by little green patches. In this 

 ambuscade the cannon and matchlock men of the Sikh army 

 were hidden, and through this labyrinth-like jungle, with its 

 numerous devious twinings, our unsuspecting troops wound 

 their way until they arrived at the cannon's mouth, when 

 volley after volley of grape swept through their ranks, fol- 

 lowed by thousands of matchlock buUets from the lurking 

 foes behind the guns. We were shown over the field by a 

 Sikh belonging to the village of ChiHian. He minutely and, 

 I afterwards discovered, correctly described the positions of 

 the various British regiments, and spoke with considerable 

 fervour of the bravery of his countrymen on that occasion, 

 and how the " Lai Kotees " (the red coats) were obliged 

 to retire. As I picked my way through the masses of bush 

 and brake, grim and ghastly relics were observed strewing 



