CHAPTER XVII. 



EXCURSION TO TERAI. 



Dispatch collections — Acorns — Heat — Punkabaree — Bees — Vegetation — Haze — 

 Titalya— Earthquake — Proceed to Nepal frontier — Terai, geology of — Phy- 

 sical features of Himalayan valleys — Elephants, purchase of, &c. — River-beds 

 — Mechi river — Return to Titalya — Leave for Teesta — Climate of plains — 

 Jeelpigoree — Cooches — Alteration in the appearance of country by fires, &c. — 

 Grasses — Bamboos — Cottages — Rajah of Cooch Behar — Condition of people — 

 Hooli festival — Ascend Teesta— Canoes — Cranes — Forest — Baikant-pore — 

 Rummai — Religion — Plants at foot of mountains — Exit of Teesta — Canoe 

 voyage down to Rangamally — English genera of plants — Birds — Beautiful 

 scenery— Botanizing on elephants — Willow — Siligoree — Cross Terai — Geology 

 — Iron — Lohar-ghur — Coal and sandstone beds — Mechi fisherman — Hailstorm 

 — Ascent to Khersiong — To Dorjiling — Vegetation — Geology — Folded quartz- 

 beds — Spheres of feldspar — Lime deposits. 



Having arranged the collections (amounting to eighty 

 loads) made during 1848, they were conveyed by coolies 

 to the foot of the hills, where carts were provided to carry 

 them five days' journey to the Mahanuddy river, which 

 flows into the Ganges, whence they were transported by 

 water to Calcutta. 



On the 27th of February, I left Dorjiling to join 

 Mr. Hodgson, at Titalya on the plains. The weather was 

 raw, cold, and threatening : snow lay here and there at 7000 

 feet, and all vegetation was very backward, and wore a 

 wintry garb. The laurels, maples, and deciduous-leaved 

 oaks, hydrangea and cherry, were leafless, but the abundance 

 of chesnuts and evergreen oaks, rhododendrons, Aucuba, 

 Zimonia, and other shrubs, kept the forest well clothed. 

 The oaks had borne a very unusual number of acorns during 



