50 SOANE VALLEY. Chap. II. 



I came to some rapids, where the stream is crossed by 

 large beds of hornstone and porphyry rocks, excessively 

 hard, and pitched up at right angles, or with a bold dip 

 to the north. The number of strata was very great, and 

 only a few inches or even lines thick : they presented all 

 varieties of jasper, hornstone, and quartz of numerous 

 colours, with occasional seams of porphyry or breccia. 

 The rocks were elegantly fringed with a fern I had not 

 hitherto seen. Polypodium proliferum, which is the only 

 species the Soane valley presents at this season. 



Returning over the hills, I found Hardwickia binata, a 

 most elegant leguminous tree, tall, erect, with an elongated 

 coma, and the branches pendulous. These trees grew in a 

 shallow bed of alluvium, enclosing abundance of agate 

 pebbles and kunker, the former derived from the quartzy 

 strata above noticed. 



On the 23rd and 24th we continued to follow up the 

 Soane, first to Panchadurma (alt. 490 feet), and thence 

 to Pepura (alt. 587 feet), the country becoming densely 

 wooded, very wild, and picturesque, the woods being 

 full of monkeys, parrots, peacocks, hornbills, and wild 

 animals. Strychnos potatorum, whose berries are used to 

 purify water, forms a dense foliaged tree, 30 to 60 feet 

 high, some individuals pale yellow, others deep green, 

 both in apparent health. Feronia Nepha?itum and JEgle 

 marmelos* were very abundant, with Sterculia, and the 

 dwarf date-palm. 



One of my carts was here hopelessly broken down j 

 advancing on the spokes instead of the tire of the wheels. 

 By the banks of a deep gully here the rocks are well 

 exposed : they consist of soft clay shales resting on the 



* The Bhel fruit, lately introduced into English medical -practice, as an 

 astringent of great effect, in cases of diarrhoea and dysentery. 



