576 Notes upon a Tour through the Rajmahal Hills. [No. 7- 



was a wilderness, inhabited here and there by hill-men, the remainder 

 was overrun with heavy forest, in which wild elephants and tigers were 

 numerous; but now in 1851 several hundred substantial Sonthal vil- 

 lages with an abundance of cattle, and surrounded by luxuriant crops, 

 occupy the hitherto neglected spot, the hill-men have with a few 

 exceptions retired to the hills, being either unwilling to be near the 

 Sonthal, whom the hill- man despises, or courting that privacy they 

 could not enjoy in a cultivated plain, have yielded up the fertile plain 

 to their more industrious and energetic neighbours. 



The smaller valleys leading out of the main or large valley still 

 afford abundant pasturage to large droves of buffaloes, that are driven 

 in from the plains of Bhaugalpur ; the Zemindars paying the Son- 

 thals five rupees per hundred head of cattle, for the right of depas- 

 turing the jungle from the month of December to April. 



I met Mr. Pontet this day at Burkyte and in his company attended 

 the Friday market, that was established by him a few years ago. The 

 amount of grain, the produce of the valley, exposed for sale was very 

 great ; numerous carts from Jangipur on the Bhagiratti were in 

 attendance to convey it away towards Murshedabad, and eventually 

 to Calcutta from whence much of the mustard that is grown in these 

 hills is exported to England. 



Besides grain of various kinds, there was a fair display of sugar- 

 cane, salt, lac, dammer or rosin, brass pots and bangles, beads, 

 tobacco, sugar, vegetables, chillies, tamarinds and spices ; potatoes, 

 onions, ginger, cotton, thread and cloth, the latter in great abundance. 



Two miles north of the village and extending for a mile east and 

 west and immediately under a range of basaltic hills, is a bed of chal- 

 cedony, agate balls, cornelian and quartz crystals. The agate and 

 chalcedony affect the hollow globular form, which globes, upon being 

 broken open, display the quartz crystals pointing inwards, some of the 

 crystals are of great beauty, resembling amethysts, being of a bright 

 violet color probably owing to the presence of one of the oxides of 

 manganese. The crystals vary in size from those of a microscopic 

 fineness to several inches in length, and of a corresponding thickness. 



The Sonthals have ploughed in amongst this curious collection of 

 natural gems, any one of which would be an ornament to a geologist's 

 cabinet, many of the globes have been fractured, displaying in the 

 sunshine a brilliant assemblage of sparkling crystals. 



