400 TERM. Chap. XVN. 



florican, however dressed, I considered a far from excellent 

 bird. 



A good many plants grow along the streams, the sandy 

 beds of which are everywhere covered with the marks of 

 tigers' feet. The only safe way of botanizing is by pushing 

 through the jungle on elephants ; an uncomfortable 

 method, from the quantity of ants and insects which drop 

 from the foliage above, and from the risk of disturbing 

 pendulous bees' and ants' nests. 



A peculiar species of willow [Balix tetrasperma) is 

 common here ; which is a singular fact, as the genus is 

 characteristic of cold and arctic latitudes, and no species is 

 found below 8000 feet elevation on the Sikkim mountains, 

 where it grows on the inner Himalaya only, some kinds 

 ascending to 16,000 feet. 



East of Siligoree the plains are unvaried by tree or 

 shrub, and are barren wastes of short turf or sterile sand, 

 with the dwarf-palm (Phmnix acaulis), a sure sign of a 

 most hungry soil. 



The latter part of the journey I performed on elephants 

 during the heat of the day, and a more uncomfortable 

 mode of conveyance surely never was adopted ; the camel's 

 pace is more fatiguing, but that of the elephant is extremely 

 trying after a few miles, and is so injurious to the human 

 frame that the Mahouts (drivers) never reach an advanced 

 age, and often succumb young to spine-diseases, brought 

 on by the incessant motion of the vertebral column. The 

 broiling heat of the elephant's black back, and the odour of 

 its oily driver, are disagreeable accompaniments, as are its 

 habits of snorting water from its trunk over its parched 

 skin, and the consequences of the great bulk of green food 

 which it consumes. 



From Siligoree I made a careful examination of the 



