20 
BOOTAN, 
of danger and alarm, which we were alternately obliged to possess and 
relinquish, till they were finally driven back, and pursued beyond 
Buxadewar. It was restored at the close of the war, and now consti¬ 
tutes the Bootan frontier. 
We were conducted by the Zeenkaubs from Chichacotta. The first 
part of the road was bad, until we came upon a raised causeway, 
having on either side, high grass, which abounded with tigers and wild 
buffaloes. Continuing our course through this dreary country, for more 
than eight miles, we entered a wood of large and lofty trees, in which, 
we were told, there were elephants, rhinoceroses, and bears without 
number, though we saw none of these animals. 
The country was still flat, until we reached the foot of the Bux¬ 
adewar hill. Here we found the ascent at first easy, and conveniently 
accessible to a palanquin half way up the hill, as far as Santarabarry, 
a place equally famed for its extensive orange groves, and the excel¬ 
lence of their fruit. Here the road became more steep, narrow, and 
rugged, being perpetually intersected by large masses of coarse marble. 
The prospects, between abrupt and lofty prominences, were incon¬ 
ceivably grand: hills., clothed to their very summits with trees, dark 
and deep glens, and the tops of the highest mountains, lost in the 
clouds, constituted altogether a scene of extraordinary magnificence, 
and sublimity. As the road winds round the hills, it sometimes be¬ 
comes a narrow ledge, hanging over depths which no eye can reach; 
and were not the horror of the scene, in some degree softened by the 
trees, and climbing plants, which line the precipices, the passenger 
would find it impossible to advance. Proceeding, however, with 
