which were covered with a climbing fern (_Acrosticum scandens_), so
that we easily doubled our flora of the river banks before arriving
at Maldah.

This once populous town is, like Berhampore, now quite decayed, since
the decline of its silk and indigo trades: the staple product, called
"Maldy," a mixture of silk and cotton, very durable, and which washes
well, now forms its only trade, and is exported through Sikkim to the
north-west provinces and Tibet. It is still famous for the size and
excellence of its mangos, which ripen late in May; but this year the
crop had been destroyed by the damp heats of spring, the usual
north-west dry winds not having prevailed.

The ruins of the once famous city of Gour, a few miles distant, are
now covered with jungle, and the buildings are fast disappearing,
owing to the bricks being carried away to be used elsewhere.

Below Maldah the river gets broader, and willow becomes common.
We found specimens of a _Planorbis_ in the mud of the stream, and saw
apparently a boring shell in the alluvium, but could not land to
examine it. Chalky masses of alligators' droppings, like coprolites,
are very common, buried in the banks, which become twenty feet high
at the junction with the Ganges, where we arrived on the 14th.
The waters of this great river were nearly two degrees cooler than
those of the Mahanuddy.

Rampore-Bauleah is a large station on the north bank of the Ganges,
whose stream is at this season fully a mile wide, with a very slow
current; its banks are thirty feet above the water. We were most
kindly received by Mr. Bell, the collector of the district, to whom