132 ON THE PAT AN I. 



limestone cliffs ; and still further in the back ground soar the lofty 

 summits of the Raman mountains. 



The floor of this amphitheatre, so to speak, is, as I have said, 

 perfectly level ; on one side of the open plain flows the river, the 

 banks of which are here from fifteen to twenty feet high and quite 

 perpendicular, so that an excellent section of the soil is obtained ; 

 it consists of decomposed limestone mixed with sand, forming a 

 substance like pipe-clay with gritty particles of quartz and felspar, 

 and makes, I was told, excellent pottery when properly prepared ; 

 it seems to have been deposited under still- water and has all the 

 appearance of a lake or deep sea bed : probably in the course of its 

 history it has been both. There are no large boulders in it, and, 

 except close to the river bed, no gravel. Near the godown of the 

 company this deposit rests on limestone, which crops up in the bed 

 of the river. 



The galena mines are situated between eight and nine miles to 

 the west of Banisita. The journey is performed on elephants, of 

 which there are trains constantly passing to and fro, nearly all the 

 traffic being conducted by means of these invaluable animals. Buf- 

 faloes are likewise employed, but as each beast can only carry 

 about 133 katis, whilst an elephant will take from three and a half 

 to five pikuls, according to size and strength, the latter animal is 

 much more profitable. About four miles out from Banisita, on the 

 way to the mines, the traveller enters into the heart of the lime- 

 stone country, long lines of perpendicular cliffs, all crowned with 

 foliage, rear their serrate summits to the sky ; some are over a 

 thousand feet high, and throw out here and there from their rugged 

 walls bold abutments from which depend huge stalactites that 

 seem almost to hang in air ; from the brows of others project 

 spiked masses and needle-like columns crowded together in fantastic 

 groups, like some vast chevaax Je /rise, and down their rugged 

 walls, the prevailing white of which is occasionally varied by streaks 

 of purple, blue and ochre, hang luxuriant tassels of creeper, fern 

 and flower ; high up on the precipices may be seen the denticulated 

 jaws of many a cavern gaping at space, whose mysterious recesses 

 no man may penetrate, for they are out of the reach of even the 

 most enterprising goat. 



