at the factory. Mr. S blamed us highly for having remained so late in the jungle, on account of the fever, so likely to be caught after sunset. With him we found Mr. Chambers, also an indigo-planter, who gave me a specimen taken out of a casowtee stone. In boring the stone for some water in the factory, a portion, which appeared to consist of gold and silver, incorporated with the stone, fell out. The casowtee stone is esteemed very valuable; its colour is black: this was dug up in the Rakabud Mosque at Gaur. Having thanked our new acquaintances for their great attention and hospitality, we returned to the boats. I was much over-fatigued, and ached in every limb from the motion of the elephant, one accounted exceedingly rough. The former night the fear of robbery had rendered me sleepless; that night I was so much fatigued, a dākait would have had hard work to awaken me.
The country around Gaur is very open, interspersed with innumerable fine tanks, surrounded by large trees. The fields present one sheet of golden colour in every direction; the sarson was in full flower, its yellow flowers looking so gay amidst the trees, the old ruins, and the sheets of water. The sarson (sinapis dichotoma) is one of the species of mustard plant cultivated in Bengal in great quantities on account of the oil extracted from the seeds, which is used for burning in lamps and in Hindustanī cookery. The bricks of which the buildings are composed are very small and thin, very strongly burned, and very heavy, united with lime alone, no mortar having been used with it, which accounts for the durability of the ruins, and the great difficulty of detaching a brick from any part, so firm is the cement.
I am told the tanks are full of alligators; the crocodile is in the Ganges, but not in the tanks at Gaur; and these fierce snub-nosed alligators in some tanks are quite tame, coming up at the call of the fakīrs, and taking the offerings of living kids from their hands: cattle are often seized and devoured by them.
8th.—I awoke much too weary to attempt hog-hunting, although the elephants were attired on the bank. Close to, and on the right of Dulalpūr, hares, black partridge, and peacocks
