OR CUTTACK. 169 



(Phcenix Paludosa). Generally, where pure sancl appears, more especially to 

 the southward, about the black Pagoda, the surface of it is covered with a 

 thick net work, formed by the interlaced stalks of a creeping convolvulus, 

 with bilobate succulent leaves, which are for half the year loaded with 

 large gay looking flowers of a bright reddish purple. The natives call it 

 Kynsarilata. A delicate succulent plant with small bright green leaves 

 growing thickly together (class Tetrandria, order Monogynia) is also very 

 common, and the summits of the sand hills are for the most part crowned with 

 tufts of the Asclepias Gigantea and a stiff thorny gramineous plant known 

 by the name of the Goru Kanta. The prevailing timber is the Sundari 

 (Query, lielitiera Litoralis, or a species of Sterculia?) Extensive thickets 

 of the thorny bamboo render travelling impracticable in most parts of Ku- 

 jang, Herispur, &c. except by water. The whole of the jungles abound 

 with Leopards, Tygers, and wild Buffaloes, and the rivers at the flowing of 

 the tide are perfectly surcharged with large and voracious Alligators of the 

 most dangerous kind. The climate seems to be hurtful even to the natives, 

 who are peculiarly subject to two formidable diseases, the Elephantiasis, 

 and a species of dysentery called the Sid, besides the commoner com? 

 plaints of fever and ague, 



In this wild inhospitable tract however the finest salt of all India is ma- 

 nufactured, which under the monopoly system, yields annually to the Compa- 

 ny a net Revenue falling little short of eighteen lacs of Rupees. The pro- 

 duce, distinguished for its whiteness and purity before it has passed into 

 the hands of the Merchants, is of the species called Pangah procured by 

 boiling. The process observed by the Moiunghees or manufacturers is rude 

 and simple to the last degree. The sea-water which is brought up by va- 

 rious small channels to the neighbourhood of the manufacturing stations 

 or khalaris, is first mixed up and saturated with a quantity of the salt 

 earth or efflorescence, which forms on the surface of the low ground all 

 around, after it has been overflowed by the high tides, and which being- 

 scraped off by the Moiunghees, is thrown into cylindrical recepta- 



v 



