60 
B 0 O T A N. 
emergency. Half way up the rock stands a square stone tower, with 
a bastion to defend the approach to the castle, which is gained by an 
exceeding steep ascent. The rock supplies it abundantly with ammu¬ 
nition : those who have possession, require no other weapons to repel 
their assailants, while they have stones to roll down upon them. 
This kind of natural artillery is common to all the fortresses of India, 
which are situated on hills *. they are called mudwallahs, or drunk¬ 
ards, from their continually varying direction in their descent, occa¬ 
sioned by their irregularity of shape, and the protuberances they meet 
/ 
with in their way. In the assault of Chunarghur, in the year 1764, or 
1765, our European grenadiers were twice repulsed by these formi¬ 
dable weapons. 
The mountains we saw this day, were but thinly covered with pines. 
We met with maple and willow trees, the dog-rose bush in full bloom, 
and sweetbriar with, and without thorns. We rested for the night, 
at Pauga. 
The road, on Friday the 30th of May, led by the river wdong the 
sides of the mountains, and there were few inequalities from hence to 
Nomnoo, an easy stage of about eight miles. We saw hermitages 
and villages spread over the sides and summits of the mountains, to 
each of which is allotted a spacious portion of cultivated ground: still 
much more appeared capable of improvement; for over the whole of 
these mountains, except where precipices or steep points project, there 
is a great deal of soil; yet vegetation is not so strong as in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Bengal. The trees are no where so numerous or flou¬ 
rishing, nor do the pines grow with that luxuriance, which might be 
