262 JHEELS OF BENGAL. Chap. XXVIII. 



villa o-es were scattered alone the banks, each with a swarm 

 of boats, and rude kilns for burning the lime brought from 

 the Khasia mountains, which is done with grass and bushes. 

 We ascended to Chattuc, against a gentle current, arriving 



on the 9th. 



From this place the Khasia mountains are seen as a long 

 table-topped range running east and west, about 4000 to 

 .")()00 feet high, with steep faces towards the Jheels, out of 

 which they appear to rise abruptly. Though twelve miles 

 distant, large waterfalls are very clearly seen precipitating 

 themselves over the cliffs into a bright green mass of 

 foliage, that seems to creep half way up their flanks. The 

 nearly horizontal arrangement of the strata is as con- 

 spicuous here, as in the sandstone of the Kymore hills in 

 the Soane valley, which these mountains a good deal 

 resemble ; but they are much higher, and the climate is 

 widely different. Large valleys enter the hills, and are 

 divided by hog-backed spurs, and it is far within these 

 valleys that the waterfalls and precipices occur ; but the 

 nearer and further cliffs being thrown by perspective 

 into one range, they seem to rise out of the Jheels so 

 abruptly as to remind one of some precipitous island in 

 the ocean. 



Chattuc is mainly indebted for its existence to the late 

 Mr. Inglis, who resided there for upwards of sixty years, 

 and opened a most important trade between the Khasia 

 and Calcutta in oranges, potatos, coal, lime, and timber. 

 We were kindly received by his son, whose bungalow 

 occupies a knoll, of which there are several, which 

 attracted our attention as being the only elevations fifty 

 feet high which Ave had ascended since leaving the foot of 

 the Sikkim Himalaya. They rise as islets (commonly 

 called Teela, Beno\) out of the Jheels, within twelve to 



