118 
Tdslt to the Siccirn Mountains, 
[April 
They are, therefore, very anxious to return to their country, which is in this neigh, 
born hood, and have been lately making every effort to obtain the permission and 
guarantee of our Government to that effect. The Gurkas, however, are aware of 
their value, and endeavour to prevent any communication with us. 
There are said to be 1200 of them in the Giirka territory under their chief Ec- 
latoc, whose brother Barajit was murdered by the Siccirn Raja in the most treaclier. 
ous manner. Barajit’s wife and children were also put to death, as they fell into 
his hands, with the exception of one son, whom the Raja has spared, but keeps in 
an honorable confinement. By means of this young man he is endeavourng to invei- 
gle his stray subjects back, but much as they dislike the Gurkas, they will not ven- 
ture to trust him without our guarantee. It is not that they are afraid of him. but 
of us ; for were they certain of our indifference to their squabbles, they could drive 
him out of the country to-morrow, as their numbers exceed those of his party. The 
Raja’s tyranny and injustice has the .additional stain of the basest ingratitude, for 
at the time that the Gurkas took possession of his country, he owed Ins safety as 
vvelLas subsistence for many years to this very man, whom he afterwards so treacber- 
ouly murdered. The absence of the people who belonged to this part of the 
country, for so many years, lias occasioned it to become a perfect wilderness ; and 
even Darjiling itself, once the site of a flourishing town, will ere long lose all trace 
of its former state. The establishment of a Sanatorium there, connected with the 
recal of the people, would however soon give a very different aspect to affairs : and 
I should not despair to see, in a few years, the bazar and Banin's shops, which it once 
boasted. At present, the only traces of its having ever been inhabited, besides the. 
extent of cleared ground, are the remains of a Gumbo or Lama monastery on the 
summit, and of cazi Barajit’s house on the even strip below to the west. 
The geology of this country is that of the north-western mountains. In the 
last three stages gneiss, of ordinary character, was the only rock observed. Ow»n<>* 
to the thick coating of vegetation however, the rock is very seldom visible, and ne- 
ver to any extent. The chief difference in the arrangement of these mountains, 
and those between the Satluj and Kiili, appears to lie in the small developement of 
the sandstone formation in this quarter, and the absence altogether, in the route we 
had followed, of the clay slate. These circumstances, with the prevalence of gneiss, 
seemed to me additional reasons for doubting that any thing like thp true shale of the 
coal formation had been found in this quarter, as stated in the Geological Transactions. 
That the specimens of coal, found by Mr. Scott in the beds of the Sabac and Tista 
rivers, belonged to the same class as those so common in our sandstone to the 
north-west, I had always been inclined to believe, and to infer, consequently that thev 
were entirely unconnected with the true coal formation, notwithstanding the use 
of the term shale in the paper above referred to. The little insight which our 
journey so far had afforded me, confirmed me in this view ; and I was now ckieflv 
anxious to see the places described by Mr. Scott, more for my own information and 
satisfaction, than as having any doubt of the conclusions I had arrived at. I wished, 
in fact, to examine this so called shale in situ , and to compare the sandstone with 
which it was associated with that which I had studied in the north-western moun- 
tains, and which I supposed equivalent with the newer red sandstone of Europe and 
consequently to overlie that formation in which coal is found. 
With a geology absolutely identical, and a climate the same in everv respect, 
tther of temperature or arrangement of seasons, it was a subject of surprise to 
to find so great a difference in the forest features of the country. Of the five 
species of pines found in the north-western mountains, not one is here visible —a 
deficiency which is particularly striking on entering the hills, the lower ranges to 
the north-west being literally covered with the Pinus longifolia, or where it is want- 
ing, m the lower sandstone lulls, being seen within the first 10 miles in consider- 
able numbers. Of the Pinus Deodar a, the king of the forest tribes, we could nei- 
ther see nor learn any thing. There is the same deficiency of oaks, a .renusof wlfick 
individual 8 / 35 ^ 8peC - ieS in north-western mountains, and of which "j only saw one 
individual in our journey. The character of the landscape, which in those moun- 
tains depends chiefly on these trees, is, it may be supposed, quite different Of 
SL ‘7V P t eCI ' !S T 0t Rhododendron found there, not one was seen bv us in Siccirn. 
Most of the trees I saw were new to me ; the most remarkable exceptions u e- e the 
wild date, the wild plantain, the tree fern, the rattan, and a reed, them »»- < f which 
I do not know, growing about 20 feet high, seldom so thick as th^wris? 
base, forming an excellent material for mats, and growing also i a the north! 
T N. S, vol ■ 
whethei 
me 
