which come somewhere from its middle, resembling, in fact, pretty nearly the straw hats worn by the Chinese, except as being more clumsy. It must be very useful, however, both in rain and sunshine, and I wonder that it is not more general. Many of the larger boats which we passed this day were painted black, the bamboo pillars which support the platform carved, and the sterns ornamented with large brass studs.

June 28.-The river takes a remarkable twist here, so that our course lay north-east by north. This indeed threatens to lengten our journey to Dacca, but it is a great relief to the men, as they are enabled to make sail, and our progress is much more rapid, though, certainly, not in so favourable a direction as yesterday. We saw a striking specimen of the precarious tenure of these high banks, and how slight causes will sometimes make them topple over. One of these cliffs or scars, for they pretty nearly answer to the latter name, without any reason that we saw but the agitation of the water occasioned by our vessel, though we were at some distance, fell suddenly to the weight of many tons, and immediately, as if answering a signal, in two other places the bank gave way in the same manner. Had we been under any of them, our vessel must have gone to the bottom, and the ripple was distinctly felt, even where we were. About nine o'clock we passed Ruperra, a considerable village, with a large ruinous building. Ruinous as it is, after the specimen which Sibnibashi afforded us, we were not surprised to find it still

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occupied by the Zemindar of the district. In its present state, and rapidly as we passed it with a favourable wind, it is not very easy to judge of what it originally has been, but from its Grecian architecture it can hardly be old, while it has evident marks of having been constructed in a striking and picturesque taste. But as I have before observed, a building soon becomes ruinous here, and to repair any thing does not seem the habit of India. Abdullah had more than once told us strange things of the Birds of Paradise' which we were to see as we approached the Great Ganges. I confess I was slow to give credit to him, having always understood that the remarkable birds usually so called, were inhabitants of the Malayan and Sooloo Archipelagos only. He described them, however, accurately enough, as large birds, of a gold colour, with a crest and very long tail; adding, that the feathers were the same with those silky golden ones, which he had seen sold in London. This morning he called to us in a great hurry, that one of them was in sight, perched on a tree not far from the water's edge. Unfortunately I could not distinguish it, but Stowe, who saw it, though imperfectly, said it appeared to answer his description.

The nets used for fishing these waters are very simple and imperfect; their casting-nets are indeed large, and good of their kind, but of course chiefly applicable to the smaller fry. We have seen no instance of the seine or drag-net, and the rest, even their largest, seem on the principal of a scoop, triangular, and terminating in a purse. They are

extended on two long bamboos, to catch the stream and all it brings with it, and when supposed to be tolerably full, are lifted suddenly. Sometimes they are thus managed in boats in the middle of the stream, where they must require considerable dexterity; sometimes they are fastened to bamboos in likely eddies, near the banks. In either case the tame otters must be of most essential service to drive the fish and terrify them from escaping. This rudeness of net struck me more, because on the Hooghly very large nets, apparently of the seine kind, are used, with kedgeree-pots for floats. The river continues a noble one, and the country bordering on it is now of a fertility and tranquil beauty, such as I never saw before. Beauty it certainly has, though it has neither mountain, nor waterfall, nor rock, which all enter into our notions of beautiful scenery in England. But the broad river, with a very rapid current, swarming with small picturesque canoes, and no less picturesque fishermen, winding through fields of green corn, natural meadows covered with cattle, successive plantations of cotton, sugar, and pawn, studded with villages and masts in every creek and angle, and backed continually (though not in a continuous and heavy line like the shores of the Hooghly) with magnificent peepul, banyan, bamboo, betel, and coco-trees, afford a succession of pictures the most riants that I have seen, and infinitely beyond any thing which I ever expected to see in Bengal. To add to our pleasure this day, we had a fine rattling breeze carrying us along against the stream, which

it raised into a curl, at the rate of five miles an hour; and more than all, I heard from my wife. We brought to at seven near a large village, called Tynybanya. The banks near the river were cultivated in alternate quillets with rice and cotton. Then followed long ridges of pawn, which grows something like a kidney-bean, and is carefully covered above and on every side with branches of bamboo, forming a sort of hedge and roof, as high as a man's head. When these branches and leaves become withered, (which they soon do) they look exactly like a high mud wall, so like indeed, that when we first saw them in the course of this morning, we both thought they were garden walls, and that the pawn was cultivated within instead of under them. Pawn seems one of the most highly valued productions of India, if we judge either by the pains taken in its cultivation, or the price which it bears; we were told that its retail price was sixty leaves, (each as large as a bay-leaf,) for an ana (11⁄2d.) no contemptible rate in a country where all products of agricultural labour are so cheap, and where rice may be had at less than half an ana the seer, a weight of nearly two pounds. Yet the only use of pawn (which has a hottish spicy flavour) is to wrap up the betel-nut which the natives of India delight in chewing, and for which I should have thought many other leaves would answer as well. Our servants, indeed, have an idea that the root of the pawn is collected by the apothecaries as medicine, and sold at a high rate for exportation, but I never remember hearing

of it. I tried chewing the betel to-day, and thought it not unpleasant, at least I can easily believe that where it is fashionable, people may soon grow fond of it. The nut is cut into small squares and wrapped up in the leaf, together with some chunam. It is warm and pungent in the mouth, and has the immediate effect of staining the tongue, mouth, and lips, of a fiery orange colour. The people here fancy it is good for the teeth, but they do not all take it. I see about half the crew without the stain on their lips, but I do not think the teeth of the others are better.

The betel is a beautiful tree, the tallest and slenderest of the palm kind, with a very smooth white bark. Nothing can be more graceful than its high slender pillars, when backed by the dark shade of bamboos and other similar foliage. A noble grove of this kind succeeded to the pawnrows at our village this evening, embosoming the cottages, together with their little gardens, and, what I see here in greater perfection than I have yet seen in Bengal, their little green meadows and home-steads. We rambled among these till darkness warned us to return. The name of this river is Chundnah. We saw a large eagle seated on a peepul-tree very near us. On the peepul an earthen pot was hanging, which Abdullah said was brought thither by some person whose father was dead, that the ghost might drink. I before knew that spirits were supposed to delight in peepul-trees, but did not know, or had forgotten the coincidence, of the Brahminical with the classical χοαι.