compared to what they were immediately after the great convulsion of the earth which led to the formation of these mountains. The Sandheads, however, situated in the Bay of Bengal, have been extending even within the memory of man; and it is not hazarding a very wild opinion to say that, in all likelihood, the lapse of a few centuries may see them joined to the tract called the Soonderbuns, thereby forming a part of the continent of India; and the fresh depos. its of the Ganges will then be carried out farther into the sea to lay the foundation of a new set of sandy islands which, again, may, in time to come, be subject to a similar change. There were, in the days of Homer, islands near the mouth of the Nile, which now, beyond all doubt, form part of the main land; one of them, of which I at present forget the name, is recorded as being a day's sail from the shore. At the mouth of the Mississippi many half floating islands are now forming, which in time must join with the Continent. In the St. Lawrence river in North America, the rocky formations in the line of its bed are of a durable character, and it has been estimated that the time employed in the recession of the falls of Niagara from lake Ontario to lake Erie is about five thousand years.

As my remarks are now, however, verging on the illustration of some of the modern geological theories, into which it was not my intention to enter in these brief and hastily thrown together notes of a journey, undertaken more from curiosity and love of travelling than for scientific pursuits, I shall conclude with a few remarks by way of recommendation to any future traveller, who may perhaps now and then be induced to tread in my steps, to endeavour to obtain a sufficient intimacy with the elements of this new science, to enable him to comprehend the wonderful formation of the earth, making its details intelligible to himself, and reducible in his own mind to some one of the numerous theories to which rational speculation has given rise; at the same time avoiding those which have originated in dogmatical

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scepticism. Geology is a science which, by bringing to light facts of the most startling description, became fashionable in the hands of both designing and foolish sceptics in religion, as an auxiliary for attempting the overthrow of the short, simple, and dignified account in the Pentateuch by Moses, of the Creation of the World. It is now fast passing through this critical stage, and, before long, will no doubt take its rank as an inductive science. Many of the first sceptical geologists, in cultivating the science, started with the belief or assumption that the facts developed must necessarily be at variance with the Mosaic account of the creation; and some few of them, after long groping in the dark for the light of truth, arrived at the conclusion that all the apparent inconsistencies admitted of being reconciled. How much better it would have been to have started in the search unbiassed and impartial, i. e. with an impression of the truth of the Mosaic account, which, they might have recollected, was not written as a treatise to enlighten students in Geology, but to inform the human race by whom the world and all it contains was created. There can be little doubt now of the wholesome progress which the science of Geology is making, and ere long, it is to be hoped, the vast mass of facts bearing on its right illustration may be arranged in such a manner, as to separate the genuine ore from the dross. Hitherto, its enthusiastic followers have generally arranged themselves into one of two parties; either the one which perverts the partial knowledge gained, to turn the Mosaic account of the creation into ridicule; or vice versa. In the Mosaic account there is, in reality, scarcely a single fact asserted which can go either to prove or disprove modern Geology, with the exception of one regarding the nonexistence of rain at the time of the creation of man. After alluding to there being no rain, the sacred Historian says: "but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground." If the sceptical Geologists had

been able to bring their theories and discoveries to overthrow this recorded fact, they might have congratulated themselves on their system; but on the contrary, analytical reasoning, on the mass of facts now collected in aid of the science in general, tends to prove, almost beyond a doubt, that the shell of earth at that period must have been in such a state, and could not have been in any other, as to render the formation of clouds in the atmosphere an impossibility; hence the mist watered the whole face of the ground, i. e. the evaporation of water in vapour from the earth, and its almost instantaneous condensation and return to it, in a liquid in particles so minutely divided as to resemble smoke rather than rain, irrigated the ground as effectually as the plentiful periodical showers of the post-diluvian world.

The sacred author of the Pentateuch could scarcely be expected to have recorded this fact as a Geologist; he must have done it either by inspiration, or on traditional authority; and if by the latter, only, then it is very strong collateral proof of the truth of every thing else he has written. Having during the whole of my journey, felt the want of a little more knowledge of Geology, I should take care not to undertake another without trying to remedy that defect, by which half the interest of one's travels is lost.*

At Josee-Muth, there is a road to the Neetee Ghati branching off from that of the Pilgrims, and I intended to visit this Pass had we been able to start on our travels a little earlier. There exists a considerable trade across it with Tartary, int wool, grain, salt, &c., and the village of Neetee is to the Neetee Ghati, what the small town of Mana is to the Pass of that name, viz., a summer commercial entrepôt. I heard that many refugee Tartar families, expelled from their country by the Sikhs, had also congregated around Neetee, as well as

*

The latter part of these remarks were suggested to me by a paper on Geology, I happened to see last year, written by Captain Hutton, I think.

Mana. After some little difficulty in selecting a path towards our future wanderings, we proceeded in the direction of the Pilkoonta mountain, viâ Raegaon, a small village near Josee Muth, and after a walk of five or six miles encamped near the village of Mirg. Here there are a few clusters of gigantic cedar firs (deodar) most of them about twenty-five feet in girth, and upwards.

The next morning (the 22nd October) we made a short journey of six or seven miles to the village of Toongasee, which lies embosomed, as it were, among the mountains in a very lovely situation. Deep forest surrounds it at some distance in almost every direction; the hill sides slope gently down towards it, and, in the vicinity of the village, they are rich with cultivavation. They give rise to innumerable springs, which descend into the beautiful little valley in many rills of water, clear as crystal, which at pleasure can be turned into every field for the purpose of irrigation, or used for the rude mills for grinding the corn. Two or three miles below the village, flows the Doolee river, whose unceasing roar falls distinctly on the ear in the still of the evening, and the glen or gorge which leads up to the Neetee Pass, is visible for a long distance into the snowy range. The chicore were swarming in every field and on the hill sides, which for some hours echoed to the reports of our guns. Our shooting, however, was most infamous, for after all our exertions we did not get above three or four brace. The birds never got up in covies of less than half a dozen, and sometimes by twenties and thirties, which, as is often found to be the case, put us off our shooting most effectually. Very good honey is generally produced in abundance at Toongasee, but this season, the hives were a total failure.

On the morning of the 23rd October, we left Toongasee and ascended the Pilkoonta range through a continued forest, which, in addition to the usual variety of beautiful trees, contained an immense number of the filbert and walnut, of a

large size, covered with nuts. These were the only good filberts I had ever seen in these hills in such abundance, the fruit being all sound, instead of worm eaten as is generally the case. The monkies appeared to be in thousands, and all collected to stare at us with astonishment; putting me in mind of schoolboys let loose for a holiday. As we gradually ascended, the sounds of our old friends the Moonal pheasants were occasionally heard and we shot a brace of male birds. At a height of about eleven thousand feet above the sea, we emerged from the forest, on one of those indescribably beautiful open glades, which we occasionally fall in with in the rugged Himmala, and which by the strong contrast with the savage grandeur around them, fix themselves on one's memory, like bright island spots in the wide and dreary expanse of the ocean, in the recollection of the mariner. This undulating lawn possesses more than usually interesting features, because, on the brow of the overhanging mountain, the fine forest continues for several hundred feet, till it ends in a belt of the lovely green rhododendron (of the stunted kind) from which, in ascending, you emerge at once upon the white snow; and it, again, is variegated with patches of light brown grass, and dark coloured moss, wherever there are springs of water. Scarcely any of the bleak shapeless rocks and frowning precipices which are so common in the Himmala, break in upon the view. I twice ascended to the snow in the course of the day, and could not help running and skipping about upon it, even without any object in view, except that it was so delightful to get a sheet of level or gently sloping ground covered over, that we could not fail to enjoy it. We also beat up the belt of rhododendron in search of the scarlet pheasant, of which we saw traces about here. This bird is sometimes called the Argus, and sometimes the scarlet breasted or spotted pheasant. I believe, however, it more properly belongs to the turkey tribe than to the pheasant. We were