134 Despatch from Lieut. H. Bigge. [No. 1TO 



distance from the present springs, with a view of procuring a purer sup- 

 ply of salt water, for the purposes of manufacture, and would also work the 

 lime stone in conjunction with the salt, but without this aid, situated as 

 these productions are, in the midst of an uninhabited forest, and not 

 within 8 miles of any population, I fear there is not inducement, 

 sufficient to render it worth his while attempting it, or incurring the 

 expense which must necessarily attend such an undertaking. 



I may here observe that these forests abound with the finest Nahor 

 Trees 1 have ever seen, a wood, which, though from its w r eight and ex- 

 treme hardness, is perhaps not adapted for all purposes, is most admir- 

 ably so for beams, posts, &c. where great strength and durability is 

 required, and might be very advantageously used in all Government build- 

 ings where obtainable. 



I left Bar Pathor after seeing all my supplies well off in boats on the 

 23th ultimo, reaching the mouth of the Duopani Nuddi on that day, the 

 Hurrioghan Mookh on the 29th, the Debopani Mookh on the 30th, and 

 arriving here on the afternoon of the 3lst, the road running along the 

 line of the Dhunsiri, though straightened in many of the turnings for 

 38 miles through the densest forests, the last 10 miles being up the bed 

 of the Dhunsiri itself. 



Through all the desolate jungles that I have hitherto travelled, and 

 they are not a few, I never met with one so completely abandoned by life 

 as this ; no animal of any kind was seen, nor was a bird heard from 

 morning till night, the death-like silence being only broken by the heavy 

 fall of the Otengah fruit, these trees composing the entire forest or nearly 

 so. The marks of the river left on the trees was every where visible from 

 1 to 9 feet in height, forbidding all idea of making this line, that of 

 communication with this post, save during the cold season, and that 

 too at a late period from the number of impassable sw r amps, which every- 

 where intervene, and render all attempts at rendering the present path 

 any shorter, or much more practicable than it is, alike unavailing. 



Fodder for cattle, especially elephants, is remarkably scarce, my men 

 finding the greatest difficulty in obtaining the smallest supply, and that 

 too of a very poor description. 



The vast number of trees, which are sunk in the river and on the sands, 

 render the navigation for boats almost impossible, beyond the Daopani, 

 unless perhaps during the rains, and even then, it is not without the 

 greatest care, that boats can proceed, either up, or still more so, down 

 the river; a very large one last year was swamped close to Bor Pathor, 

 while passing down empty, being entangled in a large tree, one of 



