Himalayan Journals | Page 7

in projecting the outlines,
I do not pretend to have wholly avoided this snare; nor, I regret to say;
has the lithographer, in all cases, been content to abide by his copy. My
drawings will be considered tame compared with most mountain
landscapes, though the subjects comprise some of the grandest scenes

in nature. Considering how conventional the treatment of such subjects
is, and how unanimous artists seem to be as to the propriety of
exaggerating those features which should predominate in the landscape,
it may fairly be doubted whether the total effect of steepness and
elevation, especially in a mountain view, can, on a small scale, be
conveyed by a strict adherence to truth. I need hardly add, that if such
is attainable, it is only by those who have a power of colouring that few
pretend to. In the list of plates and woodcuts I have mentioned the
obligations I am under to several friends for the use of drawings, etc.
With regard to the spelling of native names, after much anxious
discussion I have adopted that which assimilates most to the English
pronunciation. For great assistance in this, for a careful revision of the
sheets as they passed through the press, and for numerous valuable
suggestions throughout, I am indebted to my fellow-traveller, Dr.
Thomas Thomson.

HIMALAYAN JOURNALS.

CHAPTER I.
Sunderbunds vegetation--Calcutta Botanic Garden--Leave for
Burdwan--Rajah's gardens and menagerie--Coal-beds, geology, and
plants of--Lac insect and plant--Camels--Kunker--Cowage--
Effloresced soda on soil--Glass, manufacture of--Atmospheric
vapours--Temperature, etc.--Mahowa oil and spirits--Maddaobund
--Jains--Ascent of Paras-nath--Vegetation of that mountain.
I left England on the 11th of November, 1847, and performed the
voyage to India under circumstances which have been detailed in the
Introduction. On the 12th of January, 1848, the "Moozuffer" was
steaming amongst the low swampy islands of the Sunderbunds. These
exhibit no tropical luxuriance, and are, in this respect, exceedingly
disappointing. A low vegetation covers them, chiefly made up of a
dwarf- palm (_Phoenix paludosa_) and small mangroves, with a few
scattered trees on the higher bank that runs along the water's edge,
consisting of fan-palm, toddy-palm, and _Terminalia._ Every now and
then, the paddles of the steamer tossed up the large fruits of _Nipa

fruticans,_ a low stemless palm that grows in the tidal waters of the
Indian ocean, and bears a large head of nuts. It is a plant of no interest
to the common observer, but of much to the geologist, from the nuts of
a similar plant abounding in the tertiary formations at the mouth of the
Thames, and having floated about there in as great profusion as here,
till buried deep in the silt and mud that now forms the island of
Sheppey.* [Bowerbank "On the Fossil Fruits and Seeds of the Isle of
Sheppey," and Lyell's "Elements of Geology," 3rd ed. p. 201.]
Higher up, the river Hoogly is entered, and large trees, with villages
and cultivation, replace the sandy spits and marshy jungles of the great
Gangetic delta. A few miles below Calcutta, the scenery becomes
beautiful, beginning with the Botanic Garden, once the residence of
Roxburgh and Wallich, and now of Falconer,--classical ground to the
naturalist. Opposite are the gardens of Sir Lawrence Peel; unrivalled in
India for their beauty and cultivation, and fairly entitled to be called the
Chatsworth of Bengal. A little higher up, Calcutta opened out, with the
batteries of Fort William in the foreground, thundering forth a salute,
and in a few minutes more all other thoughts were absorbed in
watching the splendour of the arrangements made for the reception of
the Governor-General of India.
During my short stay in Calcutta, I was principally occupied in
preparing for an excursion with Mr. Williams of the Geological Survey,
who was about to move his camp from the Damooda valley coal-fields,
near Burdwan, to Beejaghur on the banks of the Soane, where coal was
reported to exist, in the immediate vicinity of water-carriage, the great
desideratum of the Burdwan fields.
My time was spent partly at Government-House, and partly at Sir
Lawrence Peel's residence. The former I was kindly invited to consider
as my Indian home, an honour which I appreciate the more highly, as
the invitation was accompanied with the assurance that I should have
entire freedom to follow my own pursuits; and the advantages which
such a position afforded me, were, I need not say, of no ordinary kind.
At the Botanic Gardens I received every assistance from Dr.
McLelland,* [Dr. Falconer's _locum tenens,_ then in temporary charge

of the establishment.] who was very busy, superintending the
publication of the botanical papers and drawings of his friend, the late
Dr. Griffith, for which native artists were preparing copies on
lithographic paper.
Of the Gardens themselves it is exceedingly difficult to speak; the
changes had been so very great, and from