mentioned. Its timber, suited both for cabinet and building purposes, is equally varied and valuable;-teak, sal, sisu, satin-wood, ebony, rose-wood, sandal-wood; palms of every description, as the palmyra, the cocoa-nut, the areca, the date, the sago, and the wonderful talipot-whose magnificent leaf is large enough for an ample canopy, -and other trees far too numerous to include in this brief reference to the productions of the soil. The banyan-tree may not, however, be omitted. This extraordinary production is found in almost every part of India and Ceylon. I know one of immense extent, that consists of a combination of separate trunks of great size, each being a dependent shoot growing perpendicularly from an upper arm, and taking root, thus becoming at once an auxiliary and daughter-tree among the innumerable sister-stems around it. From the margin of this

sylvan temple I entered through an opening like one of the arches of a cathedral, and passed under the shade of its overhanging foliage, as if the path had been leading through a forest. This wonderful specimen of vegetation, like many of the kind which I have seen, was consecrated to purposes of idolatry, and contained a rude stone, smeared with oil or clarified butter, as the venerated object of worship.

The spices of India include some of our most valuable

dietetics, as pepper, cinnamon, nutmegs, and ginger. Well

known and most valuable aromatics are found on the wildest hills, and yield some of the most costly of the scented oils; camphor, cassia, aloes, and other ingredients of the Materia Medica; as also useful resins, gums, and varnishes, are among the productions of this wonderful country. Of the Indian Flora we cannot speak, except by way of reference to the variety and beauty of both wild and cultivated specimens. The forests and jungles afford to the botanist a rich exhibition, in the endlessly diversified objects that crowd on the attention. The giant creepers are very remarkable, frequently forming graceful festoons from the branches of the lofty denizens of the forest. The oleander and the gloriosa superba grow wild in the open country. The beautiful lotus, so rich in its tints and delicate in structure, is a most elegant flower, not only remarkable as one of the frequent objects referred to by the Hindu poet, but as the floating shrine of a popular divinity.

The fruits of India are numerous, and many of them used in abundance even by the poorest. The delicious mangoe and the wholesome banana, are common in every part of the country. Oranges, limes, citrons, pine-apples, figs, custard apples, and grapes, are easily raised. On the high lands in the peninsula and in the Mysore country, the peach, the apricot, the nectarine, apples, pears, and strawberries, are among the luxuries that serve to remind the European, amid the peculiarities of an Eastern clime, of the land of his nativity. On the Shevroy Hills, not distant more than eighty miles from the Eastern sea, I was informed by a gentleman resident there, that he had seen eighteen varieties of fruit, European and tropical, on the table at the same dessert.

To enumerate the animals found in India would be to repeat the names of all the tribes in Natural History. The elephant, the rhinoceros, the bison, the wild buffalo,

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1 In the course of my missionary tours I have often met with elephants in the jungles and open plains, but when they have been in

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tigers, chetas, leopards, panthers, bears, wild hogs, hyenas, wolves, and jackals abound. Game of every description exists in all parts of the country. Monkeys in great variety are seen

herds I have never felt the least fear, they being considered quite harmless when found in company. The natives, however, generally manifest great reluctance to proceed when it is apprehended that these formidable creatures may be in the way. On more than one occasion, I have been unable to induce my native companions to venture onwards, and once I was obliged to take up my lodging in a tree, being several miles from the nearest house. The elephant that has been deserted by the herd is an exceedingly vicious and most dangerous animal. When travelling on foot in company with several natives in a dense jungle, there being only a narrow path sufficient for one person to walk in, one of these isolated elephants suddenly rushed out upon us and caused no little consternation, as may be imagined. Each person took to flight, and escaped into the trees. While I was there, where I was obliged to wait a long time, a couple of bears came into my vicinity and were quarrelling for some time. Only a few days before, a postal runner had been killed by an elephant, most likely the one that I encountered.

A very remarkable circumstance occurred not many years back, at an elephant hunt, in the district of Coimbatore, one of the provinces of Southern India. On enclosing a number of elephants in a ring fence, it was discovered that one of them bore marks of having been tamed. On the word of command being given, the animal obeyed, and, as in obedience to one of the initiated, she knelt down, he mounted her and rode out of the herd. About three weeks afterwards she gave birth to a young one, which was of a light pink or fawn colour, called by the natives a white elephant. Knowing that a white elephant is held in great esteem by the Burmese, the Government of India directed the animal to be sent to the King of Ava. The absence of the colouring matter in the skin and eye produced the albino species of elephant here noticed.

The

1 I have heard of instances of the Bengal tiger leaping on board a boat and carrying off one of the men. Two missionary brethren on one occasion saw an interesting rencounter between a tiger and an alligator, on the margin of a stream in the Sunderbunds below Calcutta. alligator was lying partially out of the water with his head on the mud, as is their wont, and the tiger, after eyeing him for some time, sprang from the bank, a considerable height above the stream, upon the alligator, and after a severe struggle captured him, and carrying him as a cat would carry a rat, bore away his victim into the jungle.

I saw the skin of a tiger at Bancoora, in Bengal, that had destroyed as many as eleven persons.

in the open country as well as in the jungles, and are often attached to the temples even in cities. In Madras they are numerous, where they may be seen on the towers of the temples and also on the tops of private dwellings, often proving exceedingly troublesome to the inmates from their mischievous habits. They do not hesitate entering a house through a window or door, and sometimes they carry away not only articles of food, but even trinkets; I know an instance of one of these troublesome creatures carrying off a gentleman's gold watch. Porcupines, ichneumons, armadillos, iguanas, and lizards of every form, are very numerous. The serpent1 tribe and other reptiles, some of which are venomous and even deadly in their bite, may be seen almost daily. Not unfrequently are these seen in human dwellings, and many natives lose their lives from their bite. Alligators abound in some of the rivers and lagoons. I have seen scores in the course of an evening's walk in East Ceylon. Birds of every description may be seen among the branches of trees, floating in the air, and in attendance at the homesteads of the inhabitants. Some of them are distinguished for the extreme richness of their plumage. In the maritime provinces and in the Mysore are found innumerable specimens of the feathered tribes, many of them singularly beautiful, but these are

1 A friend of mine in North Ceylon, when out in the jungle, fell in with a boa constrictor coiled round a deer which it had killed, and was in the act of preparing it for deglutition. The gentleman discharged his piece at the monster and killed it; I saw the skin.

2 The back-water, the lagoons, and canals connected therewith, frequently abound with alligators. In my journeys I have often, on fording sheets of water by night, driven off those monsters by splashing the water with a staff, carrying a torch, and have seen them plunging about in every direction. I have heard of numerous persons being devoured by these animals. Like the tiger, when once they have tasted human flesh they are ever on the alert to obtain it. I have heard that when a wedding party was passing along on a back-water on the western coast of India, one of these brutes raised its head out of the water and seized the side of the shallow boat, when one of the party fell overboard, and the alligator disappeared with the bride.

greatly surpassed by the superb and brilliant specimens to be met with in that treasure-house, the Himalayas. In some of my journeys I have seen ten or a dozen peacocks in a single tree. Flocks of parrots are frequently seen. Vultures, falcons, and kites are very common. Fish abound in all the rivers and tanks; and on all the shores of the peninsula salt-water fish may be had in abundance. Poultry may be obtained in every part of the country at moderate prices. Horses are easily procured. The Arab, the Persian horse, the Pegu or Acheen pony, and latterly horses have been imported from Australia, as they have long been, (though not in large numbers,) from the Cape of Good Hope. The European and native gentry have splendid saddle and draught horses.

The giant forests of useful trees, such as the teak, the sal, the oak; the topes of cocoa-nut and Palmyra palms, and the endless variety of vegetable productions that solicit appropriation at the hands of man, are associated with other kinds of natural wealth, which may here be specified. India is not only furnished with a rich supply of useful articles above ground, but enriched likewise beneath the surface. Fields of coal, beds of copper, lead, and iron, invite attention, and promise their valuable help so soon as the arts and manufactures of the country shall apply mechanical power.

Pearls are among the precious things which the deep brings forth. The pearl fishery in the Bay of Condatchy some years ago yielded in one season about 40,000l. sterling. Ivory is exported from India and Ceylon to England. Precious stones are among the minerals of that wonderful country. Diamonds, the largest and most valuable in the world, have come from the mines of India; and now at length we are informed that gold has been discovered in Taprobane. Thus we realize the language of Milton in the British possessions of the East, which in ancient times

"Shower'd o'er her kings barbaric pearl and gold."

The resources of India are almost boundless; her natural