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with water trickling in small streams, admit a cool refreshing air, 
when the exterior atmosphere is in a glow of heat. The beds of 
many Indian rivers abound with the jewassee, as also with a beau- 
tiful shrub named kuseernee, very much resembling a small 
cypress tree. 
Candhar, eighteen miles from the wells, is pleasantly situated 
on the banks of the river; and a place of considerable trade; being 
a great thoroughfare from the sea coast to the Gaut mountains. 
We met there a number of vanjarrahs, or merchants, with large 
droves of oxen, laden with valuable articles from the interior 
country to commute for salt on the sea- coast: immense caravans 
of oxen are employed in the salt trade, in this part of India; where 
there are no roads for wheel carriages, and all merchandize is 
transported b}^ these useful animals; especially up the steep ascents 
and difficult passes of the Gaut mountains, which bound the Con- 
can to the eastward; from whence commences the Deccan, an 
extent of fertile plains on their summit, containing populous cities, 
towns, and villages, situated in a fine climate, surrounded by na- 
ture’s choicest bounties. In some parts this tract is called the 
Balla-Gaut, or high mountains; to distinguish them from the lower 
Gaut nearer the sea, and connecting with the Concan. 
These Gants, or Appenines of the East, extend from Cape 
Comorin to Surat, through thirteen degrees of latitude; in some 
parts only forty or fifty miles from the sea, in others seventy : their 
rise is frequently gradual, but all their summits are lofty, and gene- 
rally visible many leagues at sea. This stupendous barrier occasions 
the phenomenon of summer and winter, or the wet and dry sea- 
sons, to be directly opposite in places exactly in the same latitude. 
