202 The Kurrukpoor Hills. [No. 3. 



Descended a stony pass strewed with quartz, hornstone and iron 

 ore, to Soogee, a small hamlet situated on a rising ground where iron 

 is smelted ; it stands on the banks of the Dhodhanee nullah in whose 

 bed I found a bed of a white schistose rock, greasy to the touch and 

 resembling the asbestos of Bheembandh. 



7th September, 1847. — Travelled this day over broken and uneven 

 ground covered with a dense forest of fine trees, the rocks being 

 quartz, hornstone, claystone and iron ore ; the forests composed of a 

 few fine trees of sal, (shorea robusta,) fit for beams of the largest 

 house, with an abundance of Sakua ;* carissa carundas, or wild corunda, 

 with a delicious perfume ; butea frondosa ; diospyros ebenum, or 

 ebony, asun, terminalia ; phalsa, grewia ; sisoo, dalbergia ; semul, bom- 

 bax heptaphyllum ; salu or sale, boswellia thurifera; keonjee, sterculia; 

 euphorbia of a large size ; aonla, myrobalans phylanthus emblica, ku- 

 dum, nauclea ; chironjee, c. sapida ; bel, segle marmelos ; mynphul, 

 vangueria ; aheens or mukkoh or kuttow ; dhaw, grisiea tomentosa ; 

 dhaumin ; panun ; ghumbhar ; koosoom ; several bauhinias ; koom- 

 bhee ; umultas, cassia fistularia ; and in the deeper glens and vallies 

 were asclepiadea, liquorice, turmeric, and ferns of several kinds ; of 

 the latter, the adiantum attains to a large size and great beauty, large 

 ferns were observed growing parasitically on trees. 



A rough and steep scramble through these trees brought us to the 

 summit of the hill Maruk, a table-topped hill of eleven hundred feet 

 elevation, from whence we had a splendid view of Monghyr station and 

 town thirteen miles to the north of us ; of the country beyond the 

 Ganges ; or nearly one hundred miles of the Ganges ; winding through 

 the highly cultivated plains of the districts Patna, Monghyr, and 

 Bhaugulpore; a good view of the Rajmahal hills to the East, distant 

 seventy miles and of the jungles at our feet, clouds shut out the view 

 of the Himalaya mountains which a few days before we had seen from 

 Monghyr in the plains, spread out in a vast panoramic view, their 

 snowy sides tinged with the beams of the rising sun. 



The summit of this mountain is about a quarter of a mile in length 



and a few hundred yards in breadth, perfectly level and covered with a 



matted and tangled jungle of bamboos, mimosa catechu, and sakua 



trees. The spot, from its elevation deserves to have a house or two erect- 



* Shorea robusta in its early growth. 



