BENGAL. 
9 
on the right, ten miles from Ghiddildow ; immediately in the front was 
a large jeel, or marshy lake, in the form of a crescent. The ground 
on the opposite side, rising as it receded, was covered with a variety 
of shrubs, and exquisitely adorned with a wild but lively verdure. 
The country through which we advanced on the following day, had 
less cultivation than that we had just left. We ferried over the river 
Maunsi, about half a, mile above the point where it meets with the 
Toorsha; after their confluence, they assume the name of Neelcoomar, 
and shaping their course through Baharbund, fall with their united 
streams into the Berhampooterh As the day dawned, we obtained a 
transient view of the summits of the mountains of Bootan, which 
resembled a deep shadow on the distant horizon ; but the sun soon 
raised up an impenetrable veil of thick vapour from the marshes at 
their base, and they were no longer visible. The vastness and obscurity 
of this enormous boundary, remote and indistinct as it appeared, when 
it first burst upon the sight in ill-defined and fantastic shapes, could not 
but excite very powerful emotions in the mind; and I looked upon the 
formidable barrier I had to pass, with mingled awe and admiration. 
On our approach to Bahar we were met, at a short distance from 
the banks of the Toorsha, by the Aumils, or principal officers of the 
revenue, who conducted us to a spot of ground that bore the ruinous 
remains of a large bungalos, fourteen miles from the camp near Balla- 
dinga. Their preference of this spot arose not from its superior plea 
r Properly Brahma pootra, offspring of Brahma. 
8 This is an appellation given to any single building covered with thatch. It has its 
name from the province of Bengal, where they are most in use, and whence other coun» 
tries have borrowed the mode of constructing them. 
G 
