250 MAHANUDDY RIVER. Chap. XXVIII. 



is flat and very barren ; it is composed of a deep sandy soil, 

 covered with a short turf, now swarming with cockchafers. 

 Water is found ten or twelve feet below the surface, and 

 may be supplied by underground streams from the 

 Himalaya, distant forty-five miles. The river, which at this 

 season is low, may be navigated up to Titalya during the 

 rains ; its bed averages 60 yards in width, and is extremely 

 tortuous ; the current is slight, and, though shallow, the 

 water is opaque. We slowly descended to Maldah, where 

 we arrived on the 11th : the temperature both of the water 

 and of the air increased rapidly to upwards of 90° ; the 

 former was always a few degrees cooler than the air by day, 

 and warmer by night. The atmosphere became drier as 

 we receded from the mountains. 



The boatmen always brought up by the shore at night ; 

 and our progress was so slow, that we could keep up 

 with the boat when walking along the bank. So long as 

 the soil and river-bed continued sandy, few bushes or 

 herbs were to be found, and it was difficult to collect a 

 hundred kinds of plants in a day : gradually, however, 

 clumps of trees appeared, with jujube bushes, Trojjkis, 

 Acacia, and Buddleia, a few fan-palms, bamboos, and Jack- 

 trees. A shell (Anodon) was the only one seen in the river, 

 which harboured few water-plants or birds, and neither 

 alligators nor porpoises ascend so high. 



On the 7th of May, about eighty miles in a straight line 

 from the foot of the Himalaya, we found the stratified sandy 

 banks, which had gradually risen to a height of thirteen feet, 

 replaced by the hard alluvial clay of the Gangetic valley, 

 which underlies the sand : the stream contracted, and the 

 features of its banks were materially improved by a jungle 

 of tamarisk, wormwood {Artemisia), and white rose-bushes 

 (Bosa involucrata), whilst mango trees became common, 



