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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
to clear jungle, and camp themselves in a comparatively open space, in the 
midst of a magnificent forest which extended for miles on miles around them. 
On the 6th January the left leg struck their tents on the Dalpanee (the 
cavalry leading), kept up that stream for miles, and then turned into a 
dense forest with an undergrowth of tangled tropical vegetation quite inde¬ 
scribable ; here an infantry man might with difficulty have got through, but a 
horseman was helpless, he could not have gone one yard right or left off the 
track. We passed the right leg under Colonel Richardson, and encamped 
in the very midst of such a forest as can only be seen in Bhootan, or some 
other primaeval wilderness. Gigantic trees rose out of thick masses of 
bramble undergrowth and thickets of young trees. The flags marking the 
regular intervals between the different corps were correctly placed, and 
we had to clear the ground between. Thanks to the assistance of the 
artillery elephants, we gunners did so with comparative ease, but even 
to us it was a labour of hours; the greatest nuisance being the number of 
little red ants, whose nests hung from the low boughs of trees, these, when 
disturbed, grew furious, and joining forces with swarms of black ones on 
the ground, attacked us unmercifully. These nests of the red ant were made 
of leaves joined together with mud, the whole mass being round, and the 
size of a melon, they were suspended from trees, and the vindictive little 
inhabitants bit with the venom of a wasp. 
While clearing a patch of leaves we came upon an enormous lizard about 
5 feet in length, and the thickness of a man's calf; him we soon despatched, 
as also a little red deer (the Muntjak) which ran into camp and was caught 
by the Eurasian gunners, who again fed on venison in place of tough com¬ 
missariat beef. 
The water we obtained here was scanty and bad, and Capt. Norman found 
even less ahead as far as he had gone. 
At this forest camp a fire was thoughtlessly lit at the foot of a partriarchal 
tree, up the hollow of whose trunk the fire went with beautiful effect. As 
the fire increased inside, the sparks issued in picturesque bouquets from 
the orifice high up, while the rush of air up the cylinder gave out an 
interesting and harmonious sound. Now the tree spread its large limbs 
Over my tent and that of my friend Capt. Briggs, and somehow we did not 
see the full beauty of the scene when it became apparent that our tents 
might suffer. So to work we went to stop the lowest end of the chimney, 
but matters had gone too far, the upper branches were on fire, and one or 
two fell, but those over our possessions held out. We then tried to fell the 
tree so as to let it fall to the far side, but the weight of the Damocletian 
boughs threw the centre of gravity our way, and finally we had to mourn 
the destruction of our tents. 
The reconnoitring was so far successful that it told us that no water could 
be found ahead for twelve miles, and that the site of the old town of Cutch- 
abaree could only be identified by the lime and orange trees, which were 
Covered with fruit; so, warned in time, we carried water with us for the 
next day's march. We knew we must be near the foot of the Himalayas, 
but the dense forest quite obstructed any view. 
Our march on the 7th was under the grateful shade of the forest for eight 
miles, to the spot where Cutchabaree had been; here the open space, once 
Covered with rice fields, was overgrown with high grass, which rose up and 
