406 Observations made on a Botanical Excursion. [Oct. 



the top of the hills for many miles around, is evidently the result of a 

 fault, which has effected so broken an outline, that our path has been 

 carried over the shattered crags. It is steep, rocky and covered with 

 brushwood. On either side the precipices are sheer for many feet. At 

 the summit we entered on a dead flat plain or, table-land with no hills, 

 except along the brim of the broad valley we had left ; where are some 

 curious broad pyramids, formed of slabs of sandstone arranged in steppes. 



March 4th. — Proceeded from Roump, which is about 400 feet above 

 the plain, and 700 above the Soane, to Shahgunj, where I enjoyed 

 Mr. Felle's hospitality for a few days. 



The country here, though elevated is, from the nature of the soil and 

 formation, much more fertile than what I had left. Water is abundant, 

 both in tanks and wells, and rice fields, broad and productive, cover the 

 grounds, tamarinds and mango topes now loaded with blossoms, occur at 

 every village. 



It is very singular that the elevation of this table-land (1103 feet 

 at Shahgunj) should coincide with that of the granite range of upper 

 Bengal, where crossed by the grand toll road, though they have no other 

 feature but the presence of alluvium in common. Scarce a hillock 

 varies the surface here, and the agricultural produce of the two is widely 

 different. Here the flat ledges of sandstone retain the moisture, and 

 give rise to none of those impetuous torrents which sweep it off the 

 inclined beds of gneiss, or splintered quartz. Nor is there here any 

 of the effloresced salts so forbidding to vegetation where they occur. 



Wherever the alluvium is deep on these hills, neither Catechu, Olu 

 banum, Butea, Terminalia, Diospyros, dwarf Palm, or any of this 

 group of plants are to be met with, Avhich abound wherever the rock 

 is superficial, and irrespectively of its mineral or chemical characters, 

 whether granite, gneiss, hornblende schists, hornstone, limestone or 

 sandstone. On the other hand, the Banyan, Peepul, Mango, Tamarind, 

 and even the Banana and Sugar-cane are found on the alluvium, though 

 from the elevation and exposure these cannot attain the dimensions they 

 do on the banks of the Ganges. 



Acacia Arahica is abundant though not seen below, and very rare to 

 the eastward of this meridian, for I saw but little of it in Birbhoom or 

 Behar. It is a plant partial to a dry climate and rather prefers a good 

 soil. In its distribution it in some degree follows the range of the 



