5/8 Notes upon a tour through the Rdjmahal Hills. [No. 7. 



twenty in depth, and about five feet six inches in height ; the roof of 

 which is composed of the basis of the columns. The cave is dedi- 

 cated to Mahadewa whose emblem the Lingum, is seeu in the cave. 

 The Lingums of which there are a great number, the walls and roof, are 

 besmeared with red lead and ghee ; the floors and walls in the vicinity 

 of the Lingums are in a wretched state of filth, from the quantity of 

 goat's blood, which has been sprinked about in every direction ; the 

 blood being that of victims offered up by Sonthals, hill-men, and Hin- 

 dus indiscriminately. The cave is kept by a Brahman from Chitow- 

 lia in the plains, and clears about one hundred Rupees yearly, the 

 produce of votive offerings, principally presented by the Hindus from 

 the plains. 



A small well has been sunk in a mountain torrent close by, for the 

 reception of drinking water. 



Immediately at the foot of the precipice stood the half of a hand- 

 some agate ball, a foot in diameter, filled with pure water, which falling 

 drop by drop from the columns, afforded the attendant Brahman a 

 cool and, as he imagined, a holy beverage. 



The basaltic columns are very irregularly crystallized, exceedingly 

 tough and are marked or are indented with numerous and minute 

 broken vescicles. 



From the cave we mounted the hill and after a walk of four miles 

 in a southerly direction along the summit, through a very pretty forest 

 and fearful spear grass, we descended at the southern spur over an 

 extensive land-slip that occurred during the great flood of 1845 ; the 

 Sonthals and hill-men who were with us say, that it descended during 

 the night attended with great noise. The forest is completely rooted 

 up for several hundred yards along the face of the hill, displaying 

 large mounds of red gravel, clay and masses of basalt. 



Thermometer 43° Faht. at sunrise. 



26th January, 1851. — Thermometer at sunrise 46° Faht. Early 

 this morning Mr. Pontet kindly drove me in his Buggy to Ghutiari, 

 which lies six miles south-east from Burhyte, and is on the eastern 

 side of the hills ; to clear which we passed through the Ghutiari 

 Ghaut, which is a good carriage road running between very prettily 

 wooded basaltic hills capped with hill villages. The whole of the drive 

 was through a well cultivated and populated country, and prettily 



