1839.] Lieut. Kittoe's Journey through the Forests of Orissa. 613 



shrub to a length of about a cubit, lie pointed one end, then two 

 men squatting down, one held down the joint of bamboo with his toes 

 and both of them spun the switch rapidly and constantly round be- 

 t 'een their hands, the pointed end being put into the hole in the joint 

 the friction soon produced a blind heat which charred both pieces of 

 wood, and eventually they took fire, the operation occupying about two 

 minutes or less. 



In the vallies, the soil is the same as that of the ghat. I was 

 obliged to halt at this short distance on account of its having com- 

 menced raining. This is certainly a delightful country and climate, 

 if I may judge from present observation the soil is capable of 

 any cultivation, and I should think that the tea plant would thrive, 

 also coffee and cotton.* The thermometer fell to seventy-five degrees 

 last night and did not range above ninety-two degrees in the day- 

 time ; it cleared up at noon and there was a fine breeze which I was 

 told is constant there, the thermometer was only ninety degrees at 

 noon. I took my abode this day in a cow-shed, on the floor of which 

 I had some fresh earth thrown and levelled, it was by no means an 

 uncomfortable place, indeed the cattle sheds are the largest and best 

 built huts to be found in the villages, and in the hot or in wet weather 

 they are far more comfortable than a tent in every respect, and twice 

 as cool. 



On my arrival this morning I met Mr. Babington's jemadar, who 

 was to have shewn me the road over the ghats, which he had repre- 

 sented as so superior to all others that had been examined ; after a 

 little conversation I soon discovered what degree of trust was to be 

 put in his assertions, he was a very well informed man, and had tra- 

 velled through every nook and corner in the Keunjur country in search 

 of a better road than the present one, but like most natives he had but 

 a very poor idea of a straight line, or of the points of the compass ; hence 

 much of the trouble which Captain Abbott had to complain of. 



I resumed my inarch at four p. m. and proceeded down the Turma 

 valley towards the great hill under which, on its eastern base, is situa- 

 ted the gurh and town of Keunjur. I was aware that the direction 

 was altogether wrong, but I was at the mercy of my guides and of the 

 jemadar above mentioned ; they confessed that there was a better road 

 in the direction I wished to proceed by, but that supplies had been 

 prepared for me along the route they were leading me by, which had 

 (they said) only one or two slight ghats. 



* I should think that no doubt could exist as to the favorable nature of the soil of 

 these tracts for the cultivation of anv kinds of superior cotton.— M. K. 



4 K 



