NATURALIST IN INDIA. 125 



openiag on the top, by which one of Kunjeet Singh's generals 

 descended, and found a vase containing many ancient coins. 

 Their antiquity, however, was found not so great as had been 

 formerly ascribed to the tope, which was thought to have been 

 buUt by Alexander the Great to mark one of his victories. 

 The coins show the usual devices to be met with on those found 

 ia the northern Punjaub. Several were procured by us from 

 the natives, who have, unfortunately, a way of not only tell- 

 ing lies with reference to the localities where they are 

 found, but, as we discovered, had counterfeited several. All 

 the coins we saw were of copper, and of the exact figure of 

 the old native piece of Hindostan. On one side was a " male 

 figure with crossed legs," on the other, " a man riding on an 

 elephant" — a figure with an arm akimbo and the other ex- 

 tended, " and with a spear or sceptre in his hand." 



The absence of wood about Eawul Pindee, and the general 

 uncultivated and barren appearance of the country, afford few 

 natural history materials, compared with the fertile and 

 densely-covered slopes of the Himalayas ; nevertheless, there 

 are attractions sufficient to repay an ardent student. Let him 

 foUow down the dubious windings of the Hummok river from 

 its sources in the Sewalik range to where it joins the Swan 

 — a river of fair dimensions which empties itseK into the 

 Indus on the west, near Kala-Bagh. Among the pools and 

 deeper parts of the Hummok, the migrating waterfowl re- 

 pair in the cold months ; and a few miles from the native 

 city of Eawul Pindee, in a low marshy flat, he will find at the 

 same season many European birds not observed in other por- 

 tions of the continent southwards. 



Along the base of the Himalayas, in the dense jungles, 

 an occasional tiger prowls ; the leopard is not uncommon ; 

 while the game birds named about Dugshai are there also 



