ACCOUNT OF BHUTAN. 153 



river, it is about eighty yards broad and fordable except in the rainy season. 

 To the north-west of Bisjorra lies Sidli, distant six coss, the residence of Su- 

 raj Narain, Raja of that Zemindari. The intermediate country is covered 

 with long grass, with a few huts here and therliyvhich are not observable until 

 the traveller is close upon them. The jungle is very high, but there is a track 

 or footpath as far as Sidli. From Sidli to tne Northern hills there is no 



road in the rainy season, or from Bysakh to Kartik : in the month of Assin the 

 jungle begins to be burned, and after this operation has been repeated seve- 

 ral times, the road is cleared. The passage through this jungle is attended 

 with innumerable inconveniencies of which the following are some. From 

 Bijai to the hills, the whole country is covered with a species of reed called 

 Khagrah, interspersed here and there, raith forest trees. The jungle is of such 

 height that an elephant or rhinoceros cannot be seen in it when standing up, 

 and it is so full of leeches that a person cannot move a hundred yards, without 

 having his body wherever it has been scratched by the grass, covered with these 

 animals ; so that a single person cannot get rid of them without assistance. 

 In this jungle, when the sun shines, the heat is intolerable, and when the sun 

 ceases to shine, a person cannot remain in it without a fire, on account of the 

 innumerable nausquitoes and other insects with which it is filled. When the 

 feun shines they retire, but in the evening and morning, and all night, men and 

 cattle are tormented by them, and they are only to be dispersed by the smoke 

 of a fire. In this jungle there are tygers, bears, elephants, rhinoceroses, buf- 

 faloes, monkies, wild hogs, deer, &c. but from nine o'clock in the morning un- 

 til three in the afternoon, they keep in the jungle, and are seldom seen except 

 in the morning and evening. To the north of Sidli six coss, lies the village of 

 Bengtolli ; between these places there is nothing but j ungle, and at Beng- 

 tolli there are only four or five families. To the north-west of Bengtolli 



lies Thannah Gendagram. There is here a party of Blmteas but no vil- 



lage, nor are there any houses on tha road ; the same sort of jungle continues, 

 but begins at Bengtolli to be interspersed more thickly with Sal trees. Just 

 before arriving at Gendagram, we crossed the new and old B'liir rivers about 

 eighty yards broad, and fordable, except in the rains. To the north-west 



T 



