Feb. 1848. TEMPERATURE OF THE GROUND. 35 



crown, and slopes upwards and inwards • a vessel is hung 

 below the wound, and the juice conducted into it by a 

 little piece of bamboo. This operation spoils the fruit, 

 which, though eaten, is small, and much inferior to the 

 African date. 



At Mudunpore (alt. 440 feet) a thermometer, sunk 3 

 feet 4 inches in the soil, maintained a constant temperature 

 of 71J°, that of the air varying from 77^°, at 3 p.m., to 

 62 at daylight the following morning ; when we moved 

 on to Nourunga (alt. 340 feet), where I bored to 3 

 feet 8 inches with a heavy iron jumper through an allu- 

 vium of such excessive tenacity, that eight natives were 

 employed for four hours in the operation. In both this 

 and another hole, 4 feet 8 inches, the temperature was 

 72° at 10 p.m. ; and on the following morning 71^° in 

 the deepest hole, and 70° in the shallower : that of the 

 external air varied from 71° at 3 p.m., to 57° at daylight 

 on the following morning. At the latter time I took 

 the temperature of the earth near the surface, which 

 showed, 



Surface 



. 53° 



4 inches . 



. . 62° 



1 inch 



. . 57 



7 „ . 



. 64 



2 „ • 



. 58 







The following day we marched to Baroon (alt. 345 feet) 

 on the alluvial banks of the Soane, crossing a deep stream 

 by a pretty suspension bridge, of which the piers were 

 visible two miles off, so level is the road. The Soane 

 is here three miles wide, its nearly dry bed being a desert 

 of sand, resembling a vast arm of the sea when the tide is 

 out : the banks are very barren, with no trees near, 

 and but very few in the distance. The houses were 

 scarcely visible on the opposite side, behind which the 

 Kymore mountains rise. The Soane is a classical river, 



d2 



