I Observed Upon These Plains Little Houses Here And There, Built Upon Artificially-Raised Perpendicular Mounds Of Clay, Of From Six To Eight Feet High.

There are no steps leading to the tops of these mounds, the only means of access being by ladders, which can be drawn up at night.

From what I could draw from the explanations of my servants, which, however, I only partially understood, they are used by families, who live in retired places, for security against the tigers, which are here very frequently seen.

3rd February. Baratpoor. We passed a place which was overgrown, in broad patches, with misshapen stunted bushes - a rare occurrence in this part of the country, where wood is scarce. My driver bestowed upon this tangled brushwood the high-sounding name of jungle. I should rather have compared them with the dwarfed bushes and shrubs of Iceland. The country beyond this woody district had a very remarkable appearance; the ground was in many places torn and fissured, as if in consequence of an earthquake.

In the caravansary at Baratpoor there were a great number of natives, soldiers, and particularly some very rough-looking men, of whom I felt inclined to be afraid: I was no longer in the English territories, and alone among all these people. However, they behaved themselves with the greatest civility, and greeted me in the evening and morning with a right hearty salaam. I think that a similar set of men in our own country would scarcely have shown me the same respect.

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