Himalayan Journals | Page 9

him when I saw other palkees breaking down, and
travellers bewailing the loss of those forgotten necessaries, with which
his kind attention had furnished me.
I left Calcutta to join Mr. Williams' camp on the 28th of January,
driving to Hoogly on the river of that name, and thence following the
grand trunk-road westward towards Burdwan. The novelty of
palkee-travelling at first renders it pleasant; the neatness with which
every thing is packed, the good-humour of the bearers, their merry pace,
and the many more comforts enjoyed than could be expected in a
conveyance horsed by men, the warmth when the sliding doors are shut,
and the breeze when they are open, are all fully appreciated on first
starting, but soon the novelty wears off, and the discomforts are so
numerous, that it is pronounced, at best, a barbarous conveyance. The
greedy cry and gestures of the bearers, when, on changing, they break a
fitful sleep by poking a torch in your face, and vociferating
"Bucksheesh, Sahib;" their discontent at the most liberal largesse, and
the sluggishness of the next set who want bribes, put the traveller out of
patience with the natives. The dust when the slides are open, and the
stifling heat when shut during a shower, are conclusive against the
vehicle, and on getting out with aching bones and giddy head at the
journey's end, I shook the dust from my person, and wished never to
see a palkee again.
On the following morning I was passing through the straggling villages
close to Burdwan, consisting of native hovels by the road side, with
mangos and figs planted near them, and palms waving over their roofs.
Crossing the nearly dry bed of the Damooda, I was set down at Mr.
M'Intosh's (the magistrate of the district), and never more thoroughly
enjoyed a hearty welcome and a breakfast.
In the evening we visited the Rajah of Burdwan's palace and

pleasure-grounds, where I had the first glimpse of oriental gardening:
the roads were generally raised, running through rice fields, now dry
and hard, and bordered with trees of Jack, Bamboo, _Melia,
Casuarina,_ etc. Tanks were the prominent features: chains of them,
full of Indian water-lilies, being fringed with rows of the fan-palm, and
occasionally the Indian date. Close to the house was a rather good
menagerie, where I saw, amongst other animals, a pair of kangaroos in
high health and condition, the female with young in her pouch. Before
dark I was again in my palkee, and hurrying onwards. The night was
cool and clear, very different from the damp and foggy atmosphere I
had left at Calcutta. On the following morning I was travelling over a
flat and apparently rising country, along an excellent road, with groves
of bamboos and stunted trees on either hand, few villages or palms, a
sterile soil, with stunted grass and but little cultivation; altogether a
country as unlike what I had expected to find in India as well might be.
All around was a dead flat or table-land, out of which a few conical
hills rose in the west, about 1000 feet high, covered with a low forest of
dusky green or yellow, from the prevalence of bamboo. The lark was
singing merrily at sunrise, and the accessories of a fresh air and dewy
grass more reminded me of some moorland in the north of England
than of the torrid regions of the east.
At 10 p.m. I arrived at Mr. Williams' camp, at Taldangah, a dawk
station near the western limit of the coal basin of the Damooda valley.
His operations being finished, he was prepared to start, having kindly
waited a couple of days for my arrival.
Early on the morning of the last day of January, a motley group of
natives were busy striking the tents, and loading the bullocks,
bullock-carts and elephants: these proceeded on the march, occupying
in straggling groups nearly three miles of road, whilst we remained to
breakfast with Mr. F. Watkins, Superintendent of the East India Coal
and Coke Company, who were working the seams.
The coal crops out at the surface; but the shafts worked are sunk
through thick beds of alluvium. The age of these coal-fields is quite
unknown, and I regret to say that my examination of their fossil plants

throws no material light on the subject. Upwards of thirty species of
fossil plants have been procured from them, and of these the majority
are referred by Dr. McLelland* [Reports of the Geological Survey of
India. Calcutta, 1850.] to the inferior oolite epoch of England, from the
prevalence of species of _Zamia, Glossopteris,_ and _Taeniopteris._
Some of these genera, together with Vertebraria (a very remarkable
Indian fossil), are also recognised in the coal-fields of Sind and of
Australia. I cannot, however, think that botanical