40 
ii O O T A N „ 
still stronger by the aid of art, which has been most ingeniously em¬ 
ployed to strike off the summit of the hill, and to level an extensive 
space, capable of affording accommodation to a body of men, suffici¬ 
ently numerous for the defence of this difficult pass, against all assault. 
A range of temporary sheds, thrown back to some distance from the 
edge of the eminence, are designed to shelter a garrison that may be 
stationed to defend it. A deep ravine divides this from the opposite hill, 
which is steep, and has a narrow road formed on its side, not capable off 
admitting the passage of two persons abreast. It winds in a semicir¬ 
cular form, round the jutting eminence immediately opposed to it,, 
which stands high above, and wffthin reach of their common arms, the 
bow and .arrow, for a great distance; till the road is at length con¬ 
nected with, and leads to, Buxadewar, by a very steep ascent. Such 
is the nature of this pass, which, however it may have been strength¬ 
ened and improved by art, does real honour to the judgment of those 
who originally selected it as a post of defence. 
The village (for it deserves no better name) consists often or twelve 
houses, invisible till the very moment of approach; it is placed upon 
a second table of levelled rock, which has little soil upon it, yet is 
covered with verdure, in consequence of its very sheltered situation, 
being surrounded on three sides by lofty mountains, and open only to 
the south, which affords a narrow prospect of Bengal. Buxadewar, as 
it is termed by the people in the low lands, derives its name from a 
very whimsical circumstance. It was formerly a custom with the 
Bootan horse-dealers, before they quitted this pass of the mountains, 
and descended with their caravan into the low lands, to cut off the 
