1848.] Observations made on a Botanical Excursion. 383 



are not sufficient to draw any conclusions from, but they appear to 

 indicate the transmission of solar heat accumulated during the day 

 downwards, between 9 p.m. and sunrise of the following morning. 



February \Ath. — Marched from Naurunga to Barroon on the Soane, 

 crossing several streams, one deep. It is curious that all the streams 

 between the Dunwah pass and the Soane itself run parallel to that 

 river and into the Ganges, even the westernmost of them, as the Pompon, 

 some of whose feeders at the great trunk road, run parallel to the Soane, 

 within a mile of that river, but instead of finding their way to it, seek 

 a northward course of nearly 100 miles to the Ganges. This indicates 

 a more rapid fall of the land towards the N. than to the W., and 

 further, a depression between Dunwah and the Soane, which I believe 

 occurs about Naurunga, and from whence there is a rise towards the 

 Soane. Nothing can more clearly indicate the tenacity and durability 

 of the alluvium through which the small streams wind their way. The 

 body of water lodged in this depression would else, during the rains, 

 find a course into the Soane, instead of keeping parallel to it for so 

 many miles. The fall of the Soane itself however gives the northerly 

 dip of the land towards the Ganges more clearly. My observations 

 both at Barroon on the E. and at Dearee on the W. bank (opposite) of 

 the Soane, makes the river here about the same level as that of the 

 Ganges at Benares, which Prinsep estimates at 300 feet above Calcutta. 

 Now the length of the Ganges between Benares and the mouth of the 

 Soane is about 150 miles, with a fall of as many feet. The length of 

 the Soane between Barroon and the Ganges is 70 miles with a fall of 

 upwards of 150 feet,* producing of course a current most unfavorable 

 to navigation. 



Barroon is situated on the alluvial bank of the river (elevated 345 

 feet) and on as naked and barren a looking country as well may be, the 

 broad expanse of sand which the river exposes in the dry season, resem- 

 bles a desert, which like many other similar expanses of sand on the 

 Ganges, has its mirages, its simooms, and the other phenomena of an 



* All these elevations are above the sea, must be considered as mere approxi- 

 mations, and are intended to give the general outline of the land. Had I detailed 

 surveys of the countries in question, they would of course have been preferred to 

 my own very rough geodetical operations, and which were not taken with the view 

 of determining levels primarily. 



