June, 1850. PICTURESQUE SCENERY. VIEW OF HIMALAYA. 287 



conglomerate rock,* enters a shallow, wild, and beautiful 

 valley, through which it runs for several miles. The hills 

 on either side are of greenstone capped by tabular sand- 

 stone, immense masses of which have been precipitated on 

 the floor of the valley, producing a singularly wild and 

 picturesque scene. In the gloom of the evening it is not 

 difficult for a fertile imagination to fancy castles and cities 

 cresting the heights above. f 



There is some cultivation here of potatoes, and of R7ti/si- 

 cosia vestita a beautiful purple-flowered leguminous plant, 

 with small tuberous roots. Beyond this, a high ridge is 

 gained above the valley of the Boga-panee, the largest river 

 in the Khasia ; from this the Bhotan Himalaya may 

 be seen in clear weather, at the astonishing distance of 

 from 160 to 200 miles ! The vegetation here suddenly 

 assumes a different aspect, from the quantity of stunted 

 fir-trees clothing the north side of the valley, which rises 

 very steeply 1000 feet above the river : quite unaccount- 

 ably, however, not one grows on the south face. A new 

 oak also appears abundantly; it has leaves like the English, 

 whose gnarled habit it also assumes. 



The descent is very steep, and carried down a slope of 

 greenstone ; j the road then follows a clear affluent of the 

 Boga-panee, and afterwards winds along the margin of that 

 river, which is a rapid turbulent stream, very muddy, and 



* Formed of rolled masses of greenstone and sandstone, united by a white and 

 yellow cement. 



f Hydrangea grows here, with ivy, Musscenda, Pyrus, willow, Viburnum, Par- 

 nassia, Anemone, Leycesteria formosa, Neillia, Rubus, Astilbe, rose, Panax, apple, 

 Buchlandia, Daphne, pepper, Scindapsus, Pieris, holly, Lilium giganteum (" Kalang 

 tatti," Khas.), Camellia, Elozocarpns, Buddleia, &c. Large bees' nests hang from 

 the rocks. 



+ This greenstone decomposes into a thick bed of red clay; it is much inter- 

 sected by fissures or cleavage planes at all angles, whose surfaces are covered with 

 a shining polished superficial layer ; like the fissures in the cleavage planes of 

 the gneiss granite of Kinchinjhow, whose adjacent surfaces are coated with a 



