12 HILLS OF BEHAR. Chap. I. 



called Kunker, which is a nodular concretionary deposit of 

 limestone, abundantly imbedded in the alluvial soil of a 

 great part of India.* It resembles a coarse gravel, each 

 pebble being often as large as a walnut, and tuberculated on 

 the surface : it binds admirably, and forms excellent roads, 

 but pulverises into a most disagreeable impalpable dust. 



A few miles beyond Taldangah we passed from the 

 sandstone, in which the coal lies, to a very barren country 

 of gneiss and granite rocks, upon which the former rests * 

 the country still rising, more hills appear, and towering far 

 above all is Paras-nath, the culminant point, and a moun- 

 tain whose botany I was most anxious to explore. 



The vegetation of this part of the country is very poor, 

 no good-sized trees are to be seen, all is a low stunted jungle. 

 The grasses were few, and dried up, except in the beds 

 of the rivulets. On the low jungly hills the same plants 

 appear, with a few figs, bamboo in great abundance, several 

 handsome Acanthacece ; a few Asclejnadew climbing up the 

 bushes ; and the Cowage plant, now with over-ripe pods, by 

 shaking which, in passing, there often falls such a shower of 

 its irritating microscopic hairs, as to make the skin tingle 

 for an hour. 



On the 1st of February, we moved on to Gyra, another 

 insignificant village. The air was cool, and the atmosphere 

 clear. The temperature, at three in the morning, was 65°, 

 with no dew, the grass only 61°. As the sun rose, Paras- 

 nath appeared against the clear grey sky, in the form of a 

 beautiful broad cone, with a rugged peak, of a deeper grey 

 than the sky. It is a remarkably handsome mountain, 

 sufficiently lofty to be imposing, rising out of an elevated 

 country, the slope of which, upward to the base of the 

 mountain, though imperceptible, is really considerable ; and 



* Often occurrm"' in strata, like flints. 



