46 SOANE VALLEY. Chap. II. 



Squirrels however abounded, and were busy laying up their 

 stores ; descending from the trees they scoured across a 

 road to a field of tares, mounted the hedge, took an 

 observation, foraged and returned up the tree with their 

 booty, quickly descended, and repeated the operation of 

 reconnoitering and plundering. 



The bed of the river is here considerably above that 

 at Dearee, where the mean of the observations with those 

 of Baroon, made it about 300 feet. The mean of those 

 taken here and on the opposite side, at Tura, gives about 

 400 feet, indicating a fall of 100 feet in only 40 miles. 



Near this the sandy banks of the Soane were full of 

 martins' nests, each one containing a pair of eggs. The 

 deserted ones were literally crammed full of long-legged 

 spiders (Opilio), which could be raked out with a stick, 

 when they came pouring down the cliff like corn from a 

 sack ; the quantities are quite inconceivable. I did not 

 observe the martin feed on them. 



The entomology here resembled that of Europe, more 

 than I had expected in a tropical country, where predaceous 

 beetles, at least Carabidem and Staphi/linidc<$, are gene- 

 rally considered rare. The latter tribes swarmed under 

 the clods, of many species but all small, and so singularly 

 active that I could not give the time to collect many. In 

 the banks again, the round egg-like earthy chrysalis of the 

 Spliynoc Atropos (?) and the many-celled nidus of the leaf- 

 cutter bee, were very common. 



A large columnar Euphorbia (E. ligulataj is common all 

 along the Soane, and I observed it to be used everywhere 

 for fencing. I had not remarked the E. neriifolia; and the 

 E. tereticaulis had been very rarely seen since leaving 

 Calcutta. The Cactus is nowhere found ; it is abundant in 

 many parts of Bengal, but certainly not indigenous. 



