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BENGAL. 
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of the largest trees had been lately felled, not by means of the axe, but 
by fire; and their charred stumps were seen on every side peeping 
through the thick brushwood with which this forest abounds. The 
only method of felling timber in practice here, I was informed, is by 
fire. In the trees marked out for this purpose, vegetation is destroyed 
by burning their trunks half through: being left in that state to dry, 
in the ensuing year the fire is again applied, and they are burnt till 
they fall. The road through this forest was narrow and confined; many 
hollows were even filled with water, and we found the passage both 
difficult and dangerous. 
Our followers came up late, having been dreadfully frightened, in 
passing through the woods, by the sight of several wild elephants. 
The mohut, or elephant driver, was not less alarmed than his compa¬ 
nions; and the noise and vehemence of his utterance and action, whilst 
he related the story of his adventures, plainly proved, that, though he 
had escaped the danger, he had not yet shaken off the fears it had 
excited?. 
Near a small village, which we passed in our route to-day, I saw 
some clusters of wild pine-apples. That they grew wild, their con¬ 
dition, and the situation in which they were found, left me no room to 
doubt. It is a well known fact, that the pine-apple is not among the 
indigenous fruits of India, though at this time they are so abundant 
in Bengal, as to be sent to market like turnips on a cart, and, in the 
p The principal cause of apprehension is, the probability that the wild elephant will 
attack the tame one, and, if not destroy him, be the means, at least, of effecting his re¬ 
lease during the conflict. 
