Jan. 1851. SUNDERBUNDS. NIPA. PHCENIX. 355 



This is owing to the complex ramifications of the creeks, 

 the flow of whose waters is materially influenced by the 

 most trifling accidents of direction. 



Receding from the Megna, the water became Salter, and 

 Nipa fruticans appeared, throwing up pale yellow-green 

 tufts of feathery leaves, from a short thick creeping stem, 

 and bearing at the base of the leaves its great head of nuts, 

 of which millions were floating on the waters, and vegetat- 

 ing in the mud. Marks of tigers were very frequent, and 

 the footprints of deer, wild boars, and enormous croco- 

 diles : these reptiles were extremely common, and glided 

 down the mud banks on the approach of the steamer, 

 leaving between the footmarks a deep groove in the mud 

 made by their tail. The Phoenix pahidosa, a dwarf slender- 

 stemmed date-palm, from six to eight feet high, is the all- 

 prevalent feature, covering the whole landscape with a 

 carpet of feathery fronds of the liveliest green. The 

 species is eminently gregarious, more so than any other 

 Indian palm, and presents so dense a mass of foliage, 

 that when seen from above, the stems are wholly hidden.* 



The water is very turbid, and only ten to twenty feet 

 deep, which, we were assured by the captain, was not 

 increased during the rains : it is loaded with vegetable 

 matter, but the banks are always muddy, and we never 

 saw any peat. Dense fogs prevented our progress in the 

 morning, and we always anchored at dusk. We did 

 not see a village or house in the heart of the Sun- 

 derbunds (though such do occur), but we saw canoes, with 

 fishermen, who use the tame otter in fishing ; and the 

 banks were covered with piles of firewood, stacked for the 



* Sonneratia, Herltiera littoralis, and Careya, form small gnarled trees on the 

 banks, with deep shining green-leaved species of Carallia, Rhizophora, and other 

 Mangroves. Occasionally the gigantic reed-mace (Typha elephanthia) is seen, and 

 tufts of tall reeds (Arundo). 



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