the Jheels is marshy; but during the rains, which are excessive on
the neighbouring mountains, they resemble an inland sea, the water
rising gradually to within a few inches of the floor of the huts; as,
however, it subsides as slowly in autumn, it commits no devastation.
The communication is at all seasons by boats, in the management of
which the natives (chiefly Mahometans) are expert.

The want of trees and shrubs is the most remarkable feature of the
Jheels; in which respect they differ from the Sunderbunds, though the
other physical features of each are similar, the level being exactly
the same: for this difference there is no apparent cause, beyond the
influence of the tide and sea atmosphere. Long grasses of tropical
genera (_Saccharum, Donax, Andropogon,_ and _Rottboellia_) ten feet
high, form the bulk of the vegetation, with occasional low bushes
along the firmer banks of the natural canals that everywhere
intersect the country; amongst these the rattan cane (_Calamus_),
rose, a laurel, _Stravadium,_ and fig, are the most common; while
beautiful convolvuli throw their flowering shoots across the water.

The soil, which is sandy along the Burrampooter, is more muddy and
clayey in the centre of the Jheels, with immense spongy accumulations
of vegetable matter in the marshes, through which we poked the
boat-staves without finding bottom: they were for the most part
formed of decomposed grass roots, with occasionally leaves, but no
quantity of moss or woody plants. Along the courses of the greater
streams drift timber and various organic fragments are no doubt
imbedded, but as there is no current over the greater part of the
flooded surface, there can be little or no accumulation, except
perhaps of old canoes, or of such vegetables as grow on the spot.
The waters are dark-coloured, but clear and lucid, even at