Bhotan, head of the Dookpa sect of Boodhists. Opposite p.372
Fig. 44. A Mech, native of the Sikkim Terai. Sketched by Miss
Colvile. p.406
Fig. 45. Mech pocket-comb (of wood). p.408


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