under the supposed circumstances. The little flattened faces may thus be accounted for, by the pressure of the grains in their conglomerated state against one another, at the time the berries are either in a soft or ripe state; at any rate, they are now simple carbonate of lime, completely dissolving in diluted muriatic acid, with evolution of carbonic acid, and without sediment.
In the plate above mentioned (Fig. 6) the grains are represented en masse, about half their proper size. Fig. 8 represents them exactly the size of the original; one is split open, showing the centre of the rays. Fig. 7 is a grain split open, showing the beautiful little white polished berry,—if berry it be,
I have numerous specimens of leaves and branches of trees from Almorah, petrified in the waterfalls, covered with a thick white or brownish crust, through which the fibres of the leaves can be distinctly traced.
Amongst other curiosities in the Hills, I must not omit the flexible stone; Major S showed me a large specimen, which was decidedly flexible. Since I have applied myself to lithography, it appears to me that the stone we cut out of his mountain at Cloud End, Landowr, with which his house was built, had greatly the appearance of the German lithographic stone; I well remember thinking it rotten when first cut out, and finding it hardened completely on exposure to the air in ten days or a fortnight: I know not if this peculiarity belong to the lithographic stone. The latter dissolves completely in muriatic acid, and water, leaving no sediment.
31st.—A most fearful storm during the night,—one that was sufficient to make me quit my bed, to look after my little widow and the bābās, i. e., children. The paharīs informed me a few days ago that the banglā or thatched house in which I am living has been three times struck by lightning, and twice burned to the ground!—an agreeable reminiscence during so violent a storm. As the lightning, if it strike a house, often runs round the walls of a room, from the iron of one wall shade to that of another, and then pursuing its course down to the grate, tears out the bars, and descends into the earth, we took the precaution of sitting in the centre of the room, avoiding the
