land. I had one warning, however, to walk more warily in this country than in my own, which will not be thrown away upon me: wishing to get by a near way to the river side, I passed down through the jungle by a narrow gulley, which had, I apprehend, been a water-course. I had not, however,

gone far before a close and strangely noisome smell of confined air and decayed vegetables drove me up again, and almost made me sick. It did me no harm, but I shall keep away from all such dens in future.

A number of alligators were swimming all evening round my boat, lifting from time to time their long black heads and black fore feet above the water. The expanse of the Ganges is at this season truly magnificent, and being confined on one side by rocks, it seems to spread itself so much the more proudly on the low grounds on the north-east bank.

August 8.-I was disappointed to find that the wind was too weak this morning to contend with the rapids in the direct line of the river, and that we must again go away from these beautiful hills, and enter the nullah which we had traversed the

evening before. Still, however, we had a fine though more distant view of the range, but I was vexed to miss the celebrated pass of Terriagully. About two o'clock we returned across a very large jeel to the main stream of the river at Peer Pointee, but the chain of mountains was now fairly left behind us, and we were no longer in Bengal.

Peer Pointee is at the foot of a detached hill,

which I should have admired in Bengal, but I had just been looking at something better. I was glad to observe, as we turned its promontory, that there were yet some eminences beyond it, and that we were not entering another so complete plain as that enormous one which we had just traversed. Peer Pointee, Father or St. Pointee, was the name of a Mussulman saint, who lies buried here. His tomb, resembling that at Sicligully, though less picturesquely situated, stands on a little cliff above the river, with some fine bamboos hanging over it. I was struck both yesterday and to-day with the beauty of the bamboos on this rocky soil, which I should not have supposed favourable to their growth; but on enquiry, I was told that though the plants in a warm dry soil never grew so tall as in a moist one, yet they are well known to be stouter, healthier, and better timber in the former than in the latter, so that the bamboo of such situations is always preferred for spears, oars, masts, &c.

We halted for the night in a very pretty and pleasant place. On the left hand was a beautiful green meadow, ascending with a gentle slope to a grove of tall trees, in front of which was a pagoda, so like an English Church, that I was tempted to believe it was really taken from some of the models which the Christians have given them. On one side of this, and just in front of the vessel as it lay, was a high woody promontory, jutting into the river, among the trees of which other buildings or ruins shewed themselves. Beyond, and in the bed

of the river, rose some high naked rocks, forming some rapids which are dangerous to pass at this season. As soon as I had assented to his stopping, Mohammed begged leave to shew me a wonderful cave in the hill before us, of which nobody had ever seen the end. I am not curious in caves, unless they are very fine and extraordinary indeed, but went, in the hope that I should at least see something interesting by the way. I scrambled up the hill, followed by about half a dozen of the boatmen, by a rugged path, such as might be expected, till pretty near the top, where they introduced me to, certainly, a larger and finer cave than I had anticipated, in a lime-stone rock, overhung with ivy and peepul-trees in a very graceful and picturesque manner. The entrance was rude but large, and it has, I suspect, been a quarry for lime-stone, or at least enlarged for that purpose, the apartments within branching off two or three ways, and bearing, so far as I could perceive by the imperfect light, marks of art. There is also a sort of shallow cistern cut in the rock, which seems very like a place for making chunam. The air had every appearance of being perfectly fresh and pleasant, and I should have liked to explore it; but we had no flambeaus; candles would soon have been extinguished by the water which dropped very fast from the roof, and I knew too much of caves to expect to find any thing in this worth catching cold for. I therefore declined the offer of one of the dandees to run to the village to fetch "Mussauls," (torches,) much to their regret.

I was told that there were many other very pretty religious places about the rock, to which I desired Mohammed to lead me. He took me round the base of the hill, and then shewed the way up a sort of a ladder, half natural, of roots of trees, and of rocks, half artificial, where the stone had been cut away into rude steps, to a small rocky platform, half way up the cliff, facing the river. There were some other small caves, evidently the works of art, with low doors, like ovens, and some rude carving over and round them. I crept into one, and found it a little hermitage, about 12 feet wide by 8, having at each end a low stone couch, and opposite the entrance a sort of bracket, either for a lamp or an idol. The boatmen, on my coming out, eagerly crowded in, but seemed disappointed to find nothing more. They had heard, it seems, that the cavern above communicated with one of these recesses, and as we went along, kept peeping as English schoolboys or seamen might have done, into every hole and corner of the cliff, in the hopes of verifying the report.

I climbed from this place a few steps higher to another.and larger platform, with a low wall round it. Here I found two little temples to Siva and to Kali, kept by an old "Gossain," (or Hindoo hermit,) with two disciples, one a grown man, the other a boy. The old man had long white hair and beard, and was sitting naked, with his hands joined and his eyes half shut, amid the breezes of the river. The boy was near him, and the man, on hearing our voices, had got up in a hurry, and be

gun to murmur prayers, and pour water over the lingam. A small gratuity, however, brought him back to the civilities of this world, and he shewed me not only Siva's symbol, but Kali, with her black face, scull chaplet, and many hands. He also shewed me the remains of several other images, cut on the face of the rock, but which had been broken by the Mussulman conquerors. Under these last were two small holes like those below, which they told me were, in fact, their lodgings. I asked if they knew any thing about the cave on the other side of the hill; on which the old gossain, with an air of much importance, said, that nobody had ever seen its end; that 2000 years ago a certain Raja had desired to explore it, and set out with 10,000 men, 100,000 torches, and 100,000 measures of oil, but that he could not succeed; and if I understood him rightly, neither he nor his army ever found their way back again! These interminable caves are of frequent occurrence among the common people of every country. But the centenary and millesimal way in which the Hindoos express themselves, puts all European exaggeration to the blush. Judging from the appearance of the cave, and the size of the hill which contains it, I have no doubt that a single candle, well managed, would more than light a man to its end and back again. A little beyond these temples, descending by a similar stair, is a small village inhabited chiefly by religious beggars of the same description, and a very curious little hermitage or temple, built of brick, in the hollow of a huge de