38 



SKETCH OF THE 



from Serooee, which belong to the primitive class. I believe that the 

 southern portion of this vrestern tract is characterised by its broken and 

 mountainous aspect, and that some of its hills rise to a very considerable 

 altitude. In this part of the country is situated the mountain of Abu, so 

 famous in Hindoo Mythology, which, according to Colonel Todd, rises 

 5,000 feet above the sea ; and from the district of Sirolii passes off to the 

 west a range of hills, I believe also of primitive formation. Sirohi itself, 

 especially towards the north, is described as exceedingly fertile, and capa- 

 ble of being highly cultivated. It is succeeded in a northerly direction by 

 the country of Marwar, which is described as lying comparatively low. 

 This last is bounded by the sterile districts of JBikanSr and Jesselmer, 

 which are situated on the confines of the sandy desert — the sands of 

 which make yearly encroachments on the country to the west of the 

 central range — the said range presenting an impassible barrier to their 

 further progress east. 



In concluding this branch of my subject, I may remark that those 

 who are in the habit of travelling much in India, are constantly struck 

 with the very different aspect which the same country presents at differ- 

 ent seasons of the year, and hence very opposite, and even contradictory, 

 accounts of particular districts may be given by travellers, and all of 

 these may be correct. The increase of vegetation during the rains is 

 a principal cause of this alteration, and it is astonishing sometimes to 

 observe the effects of light and sJiadoiv in modifying the external features 

 of the country. During the season of the hot winds, when the sky is 

 clear and cloudless, and the sun is reflected with fearful intensity from 

 the bare and barren rocks, nothing but ideas of desolation are excited, 

 in the mind, but after the first fall of rain the scene changes as if by 

 enchantment — the wilder and bleaker features of the country are softened 

 down, the desert seems at once to teem with life and vegetation— while 



