8 GANGES VALLEY. Chap. III. 



seek total solitude; ever since having disturbed a god 

 in his slumbers, these birds are fated to pass the night 

 in single blessedness. The gulls and terns, again, roost in 

 flocks, as do the wild geese and pelicans, — the latter, how- 

 ever, not till after making a hearty and very noisy supper. 

 These birds congregate by the sides of pools, and beat the 

 water with violence, so as to scare the fish, which thus be- 

 come an easy prey; a fact which was, I believe, first in- 

 dicated by Pallas, during his residence on the banks of the 

 Caspian Sea. Shells are scarce, and consist of a few small 

 bivalves ; their comparative absence is probably due to the 

 paucity of limestone in the mountains whence the many 

 feeders flow. The sand is pure white and small-grained, 

 with fragments of hornblende and mica, the latter varying 

 in abundance as a feeder is near or far away. Pink sand* 

 of garnets is very common, and deposited in layers inter- 

 stratified with the white quartz sand. Worm-marks, 

 ripple-marks, and the footsteps of alligators, birds and 

 beasts, abound in the wet sancl. The vegetation of the 

 banks consists of annuals which find no permanent resting- 

 place. Along the sandy shores the ever-present plants 

 are mostly English, as Dock, a Nasturtium, Ranunculus 

 sceleratus, Fumitory, Juncus bufonius, Common Vervain, 

 Gnqplialium luteo-album, and very frequently Veronica 

 Anagallis. On the alluvium grow the same, mixed with 

 Tamarisk, Acacia Arabica, and a few other bushes. 



Withered grass abounds ; and wheat, dhal (Cajanui) 

 and gram (Cicer arietinuni), Carthamus, vetches, and rice 

 are the staple products of the country. Bushes are few, 

 except the universally prevalent Adhatoda and Calotropis. 



* I have seen the same garnet sand covering the bottom of the Himalayan 

 torrents, where it is the produce of disintegrated gneiss, and whence it is trans- 

 ported to the Ganges. 



