May. 1850. JHEELS. BURRAMPOOTER RIVER. 257 



boats, in the management of which the natives (chiefly 

 Mahometans) are expert. 



The want of trees and shrubs is the most remarkable 

 feature of the Jheels ; in which respect they differ from the 

 Sunderbunds, though the other physical features of each 

 are similar, the level being exactly the same : for this 

 difference there is no apparent cause, beyond the influence 

 of the tide and sea atmosphere. Long grasses of tropical 

 genera (Sacc/iarwn , Donax, Andropogcm, and Rottbcettia) 

 ten feet high, form the bulk of the vegetation, with 

 occasional low bushes along the firmer banks of the natural 

 canals that everywhere intersect the country ; amongst 

 these the rattan cane {Calamus), rose, a laurel, Strava- 

 dium, and fig, are the most common ; while beautiful 

 convolvuli throw their flowering shoots across the water. 



The soil, which is sandy along the Burrampooter, is 

 more muddy and clayey in the centre of the Jheels, with 

 immense spongy accumulations of vegetable matter in the 

 marshes, through which we poked the boat-staves without 

 finding bottom : they were for the most part formed of 

 decomposed grass roots, with occasionally leaves, but no 

 quantity of moss or woody plants. Along the courses 

 of the greater streams drift timber and various organic 

 fragments are no doubt imbedded, but as there is no current 

 over the greater part of the flooded surface, there can be 

 little or no accumulation, except perhaps of old canoes, or of 

 such vegetables as grow on the spot. The waters are dark- 

 coloured, but clear and lucid, even at their height. 



We proceeded up the Burrampooter, crossing it 

 obliquely ; its banks were on the average five miles apart, 

 and formed of sand, without clay, and very little silt or 

 mud : the water was clear and brown, like that of the 

 Jheels, and very different from that of the Jummul. We 



VOL. II. S 



