BUBDAIl LAKE. 
15 
lake, which the natives call the Buddah. It is a serpen- 
tine sheetof fresh water, of rather more than a mile in length, 
and from three to four hundred yards in breadth. Its depth 
was four fathoms ; but it seemed as if it were now five or 
six feet below the ordinary level. No stream either runs 
into it or flows from it ; yet it abounds in fish ; from which 
circumstance I should imagine that it originally owed its 
supply to the river during some extensive inundation. Not- 
withstanding that we had crossed some rich tracts of land 
in our way to it, the neighbourhood of the lake was by no 
means fertile. The trees around it were in rapid decay, 
and the little vegetation to be seen appeared to derive but 
little advantage from its proximity to water. 
W e had started at early dawn ; and the heat had become in- 
tolerable long ere the sun had gained the meridian. It was 
rendered still more oppressive from the want of air in the 
dense bushes through which we occasionally moved. At 
2 p. m. the thermometer stood at 129“ of Fahrenheit, in 
the shade ; and at 149“ in the sun ; the difference being ex- 
actly 20“. It is not to be wondered at that the cattle 
suffered, although the journey was so short. The sun’s 
rays were too powerful even for the natives, who kept as 
much as possible in the shade. In the evening, when the 
atmosphere was somewhat cooler, we launched the boat 
upon the lake, in order to get some wild fowl and fish ; but 
although we were tolerably successful with our guns, we 
did not take any thing with our hooks. 
The natives had, in the course of the afternoon, been 
