14 HILLS OF BEHAR. Chap. I. 



Jujubes (Zizyphus) prevailed, with the Carissa carandas 

 (in fruit), a shrub belonging to the usually poisonous family 

 of Dog-banes (Apocynea) ; its berries make good tarts, and 

 the plant itself forms tolerable hedges. 



The country around Fitcoree is gather pretty, the hills 

 covered with bamboo and brushwood, and as usual, rising 

 rather suddenly from the elevated plains. The jungle 

 affords shelter to a few bears and tigers, jackals in 

 abundance, and occasionally foxes ; the birds seen are 

 chiefly pigeons. Insects are very scarce; those of the 

 locust tribe being most prevalent, indicative of a dry 

 climate. 



The temperature at 3 a.m. was 65°; at 3 p.m. 82°; and 

 at 10 p.m., 68°, from which there was no great variation 

 during the whole time we spent at these elevations. The 

 clouds were rare, and always light and high, except a little 

 fleecy spot of vapour condensed close to the summit of 

 Paras-nath. Though the nights were clear and starlight, 

 no dew was deposited, owing to the great dryness of the 

 air. On one occasion, this drought was so great during 

 the passage of a hot wind, that at night I observed the 

 wet-bulb thermometer to stand 20^° below the tempera- 

 ture of the air, which was 66° ; this indicated a dew-point 

 of HJr°, or 54^° below the air, and a saturation-point of 

 0'146 ; there being only 01 02 grains of vapour per cubic 

 foot of air, which latter was loaded with dust. The little 

 moisture suspended in the atmosphere is often seen to be 

 condensed in a thin belt of vapour, at a considerable distance 

 above the dry surface of the earth, thus intercepting the 



into glass. Dr. Royle mentions this curious fact (Essay on the Arts and Manu- 

 factures of India, read before the Society of Arts, February 18, 18.52), in illustra- 

 tion of the probably early epoch at which the natives of British India were 

 acquainted with the art of making glass. More complicated processes are 

 employed, and have been from a very early period, in other parts of the continent. 



