berough, two lions cut in a dark porphyry, brought from this pagoda. Mr. Ives fays, that it has three precincts, and that the towers are in the inner, and that it has a tank or refervoir of water for the purposes of ablutions; and that the chief deity was kept in a darksome repofitory.

He was

"In the eruption made by Ayder Ali into thefe parts in 1781, he flung a garrifon into this pagoda. It was attacked by Sir Eyre Coote on June 18th, who was repulfed with great lofs. This misfortune was fpeedily repaired by the great abilities of our commander. The enemy hemmed him in on one fide, the fea on the other. threatened with deftruction froin an army of eighty thousand men, well appointed in all refpects, to which he had to oppofe only feven thoufand, and thofe in danger of famine from the difficulty of fupplies. The fate of India was decided near Porto Novo on July 1st. Ayder, elate with fuccefs, was deaf to the remonftrances of the early genius of Tippon Saib, his eldeft fon, and offered battle. The difpofi tion and wonderful manoeuvres of our commander procured the nerited fuccefs: a general route enfued, and Ayder's troops fied on every fide.

"The architecture of thefe temples varies; thofe of Malabar, and thofe of Bengal, have a different form. The enthufiattic refpect paid to the pagodas by the unfeigned piety of the Indians, is exemplarily great. Thofe buildings are of fuch ftrength as frequently to induce the Europeans to fling fmall bodies of troops into them, and make them temporary fortreffes. Mr. Orme, in his fecond volume, p. 593, gives a plan of the great pagoda of Chilimbaram, as it was defigned to be fortified by the French in the moft regular manner, which was actually begun, and this beautiful pile moft horridly deformed, by projecting redoubts, much changed from the beautiful reprefentation given by Mr. Sonnerat, in vol. i. tab. 61; all the pagodas on this coaft are faid by Mr. Orme to have been built on the fame plan. Whether the Eng lib treat thefe facred places with lefs refpect than other Chriflian nations, I do not know; but when they occupied that of Achoveram, five miles fouth-weit of the neighbouring Devicotta, the poffeffion had nearly proved fatal to the whole detachment. This pagoda had been, in the war of 1749, furrendered to a detachment of our troops by the Brahmins on the firit fummons. The Tanjorine army, which happened to be in the neighbourhood, infpired with horror at the pollution, made a defperate attack on the place with five thousand men: neither their obedience to their prince, or their notions of military honor, would have infpired them with like courage. After attempting to burn the gates, and to fcale the wall with ladders during the whole night, they were repulfed with the lofs of three hundred men by the little garriton of one hundred English. Our people knew they fought for their lives; had the pagoda been taken, every man would have been put to the fword, for the profanation of the facred place." P. 26.

As a fpecimen of our author's attention to the natural hif tory of the peninfular regions, fo very little explored hitherto, we infert the following paffage :

"As I have mentioned very few birds on the western fide of the Indooftan continent, I fhall intermix the moft curious species with thofe of the Coromandel fide.

"A moft elegant fpecies of Cockatoo, white, with the under fide of the crest crimson, and of the fize of a raven, begins to make its appearance about Guzerat, and is faid to inhabit many parts of India. They are common, according to Mandelfe, Book i. p. 34, in the forefts and beautiful avenues of coco-trees about Amedabad, which are quite animated with monkies and parrots of various kinds. These are called Kakatuas, from their note; are very familiar, eafily tamed, and taught to fpeak: they breed in great numbers in even the cities of India; the buildings of which are frequently fo intermixed with trees, that the traveller fcarcely discovers the ftreets till he has got into them. The Cockatoos are fo domefticated, as to make their nefts under the eaves of the houses undisturbed by the haunt of men; they are not confined to the continent, but extend as far as Amboina.

"The Hornbill of Gingi, Sonnerat, ii. tab. cxx. bas the acceffory bill incurvated like the lower, and fharp pointed. It is faid to feed on rice and fruits.

"The fecond fpecies is found on the Malabar coaft. The acceffory bill is oblong, convex at top, and rounded at each end.

"The Bee-eater of Coromandel, Sonnerat, ii. tab. cix, is remarkable for its almost uniform pale yellow.

"In this country are four fpecies of partridges; my friend Mr. Latham, or Sonnerat, muft be confulted for their defcriptons. The Indian, Sonnerat, ii. tab. xevi. Latham, iv. p. 752. The Gingi, Sonn. p. 169. Latham, iv. p.773. Pondicherry, Sonn. p. 165, and the little quail of Gingi, Sonn. p. ii. 172. Latham, iv. 789. The colors, or their difpofitions, is in molt of them very elegant.

"Among aquatic birds are the common crane, Br. Zool. ii. App. P. 534, and the beautiful Indian crane, Edw. tab. 45. The Coromande! heron, a small white fpecies, with the back of the head and neck, and fore part of the neck of a fine pale yellow; and finally, the violet heron, Latham, v. 97. Pl. Enl. tab. 906, in length about three feet, entirely of a bluish black, gloffed with violet, except the space from the eyes to the breaft, which is of a fnowy whitenefs.

"Le Bec-ouvert of Pondicherry, Pl. Enl. tab. 932, and that of Coromandel, Sonn. ii. tab. cxxii. Latham, v. 83, are common on this coaft. They do not exceed fifteen inches in length: the firft is wholly white, except the back, and the primaries and fecondaries, which are black the other has a white back, the crown fpotted with black, and chin, and space between the bill and eyes, of the fame color: the bill is the character of the genus. It is long, like the herons, but from the tip half way its length, the mandibles recede from each other, and leave an open space.

"The long-legged Plover, Br. Zool. ii. No. 209, is common to England, the Weft Indies, and this country.

The Curforius Afiaticus, Latham, Index. Ornith. ii. p. 751, and Syn. Av. v. 217. Pl. Enl. tab. 859, is a rare bind, found here.

Here are met with the Porphyrio, Latham, v. 253, and fome other gallinules; to be traced in the rude attempts to figures on the Indian and Chinese papers.

"The

"The Black Skimmer, Ar&t. Zool. ii. No. 445. Latham, vi, 347, is common to North America and the Coromandel coast.

Among the ducks I fhall only mention the Coromandel, Latham, vi. 556. Pl. Enl. tab. 949, 950.”

P. 40.

The information contained in the fubfequent extract is of a very curious and interefting kind to thofe who are engaged in the investigation of geological subjects; as it is an additional proof, to many that have already been adduced, of some dreadful convulfion having, in very remote periods, defolated the fouthern continent of India: the fame perhaps that rent Ceylon from the main land, and broke into fragments the innumerable iflands called Maldivian.

"Far to the weft of Madras are a chain of hills, often interrupted, which begin about the fame diftance from Gingi; the laft are formed of immenfe rocks detached, and feemingly placed on each other by human art, and intermixed are feveral of the ftrong forts of the natives. In the neighbourhood of Pondicherry they are formed of decompofed fieldt-fpath and ferruginous matter; within them are vaft grottos, which have been by the Indians formed into Pagodas, fupported by columns, probably like those of Elephanta. What is very fingular is, that on these mountains, now deftitute of every mark of vegetation, are found vaft trees, wholly petrified, lying in all directions across the ravines; and fome, so as to form bridges over those chafms. Those trees are now of the fame materials as the rocks themfelves; they prove that this tract had once been well wooded, and that by fome mighty convulfion they were totally reverfed, their bowels caft up into the face of the day, the powers of vegetation denied, and the trees left to receive the petrific juices, prefervative to the end of time, memorial of the mighty phænomenon: for thefe and many other notices we are obliged to M. Sonnerat, who paffed over India with the fpirit of a true philofopher." P. 91.

The next great boundary-river on the eastern fide of the peninfula, is the Kifhna, or Kiltna, which receives into its bofom a thousand interior ftreams, rufhing down from the lofty Ghauts. The provinces through which it paffes, and the great and ancient capitals which it washes, are described in order, and with fufficient amplitude for the plan of the work, which it should ever be confidered is but an outline, though a bold one. Many very entertaining narrations are intermixed, taken from authentic writers, moftly of a modern date; the natural hiftory of birds, beafts, and plants, is continued at intervals; and at length leaving the coaft of Coromandel, we are ushered into what Mr. P. judicioufly calls GANGETIC HINDOOSTAN, or the region watered by the Ganges. Here new and still more interefting objects arife for confideration in the extenfive field of nature, and in the expanding circle of arts and antiquities. Our author prefents his readers with an ample defcription of

that

that mighty river, traces it to its diftant fource in Thibet, and enumerates the various cities and magnificent pagodas that adorn its banks. In the fame manner he gradually and feientifically leads us along the wandering banks of the Jumma ; difcuffes the ancient and prefent ftate of things; alternately excites our wonder and our pity; points out the places of battles, the fucceffive fcenes of glory and of defeat to Hindoos, Mahomedans, and Europeans; and impreffes the reflecting mind, as he recounts their varied history, with the awful leffon of human viciffitude. In fpeaking of the navigation of the Sunderbund, or vaft foreft at the mouth of the Ganges, Mr. Pennant has entered into a very valuable hiftory of what he calls the Zoology of the Woods, of this part of India. It is the refult of the private information of Sir Elijah Impey, Mr.. Middleton, and others; and, from the little knowledge which we have of any of the animals, except tygers, which tenant that dreary recefs, three hundred miles in extent, its publication cannot fail of affording the Indian naturalift great plea fure. It extends from p. 155 to p. 160. In difcuffing the fource of the Ganges, our author has been enabled, by the affiftance of Mr. Daniell, the moft recent European traveller in that region of Alia, to correct fome errors of his predeceffors. We think it material to make thefe corrections known, as Mr. Pennant's book may not fall into the hands of all our readers connected with Afiatic concerns.

"An immenfe defert, little known, originates immediately to the north of the fountains of the Ganges; I may fay to that of the Indus, in about Lat. 37° 30'; its courfe is north-easterly between Long. 74°, 45, and 105 caft, bounding or dividing part of Hindoftan, Thibet, western Tartary, Tangut, and the Monguls, and ends in Lat. 49° 20', at the lake Dalay nor, in Chinefe Tartary; the whole extent is not lefs than two thoufand three hundred and ninety-feven miles. It is named the Gobi, and by the Chinese, Shamo and Han Kai. It confifts of fands unftable and tremendous as those of Arabia, which would be impaffable had not nature placed across them, at very remote distances, three chains of hills, or narrow tracts of folid ground, the roads which travellers must take; and amidst this ocean were pleafant vallies, entirely infulated by the fand. Occafionally, in the middle ages, thefe roads were the paffage which merchants took, either from the countries bordering on the Cafpian Sea, or from Europe itself, as their bufinefs might call them through Tartary and Bucharia into India, or the diftant China. As the traveller in antient times advanced as far eastward in the great Tartarian as the defert of Lop, the terrible fcenery laid hold of their fancies; they were terrified with the delufion of dæmons which haunt thefe dreadful deferts: they imagined themfelves to be called by their names by voices familiar to them, till they were brought to the edge of fome precipice; or at times they were recreated with the found of aereal mufic." P. 162.

I

"A little

"A little beyond Latac, the river fuddenly bends towards the. fouth-eaft, and after near a hundred miles course, receives the branch of the Ganges which flows from the lake Lanken: the course still continues inclining to the eaft; it paffes through a gap in the Himmale chain, which forms the Gangoutra juft mentioned; this word fignifies a cafcade of the Ganga or Ganges.

"The river from hence is called the Baghyretty; it paffes along the western foot of the great chain, through the fertile_Rajalip of Sirinagur, environed with lofty wooded mountains; the trees very large, on this fide covered with thofe of the country only; on the other with European trees, fuch as oak, walnut, cherry, peach, rafpberry, &c. &c. Many of the hills are very high, of a fugar-loaf fhape, covered with a smooth and verdant turf, and have a flatted top; they rife to a great height one above the other, and are crowned on the fummit of each with a village. From the fummit Mr. Daniell ̧ faw the Glacieres of India, which made a moft majestic and awful ap pearance even at the distance of a hundred and fifty miles. The ice rifes often into lofty fpires on the grandeft of scales; the light fides were ftained in the most elegant manner with a rofeate color. Another great river, called the Aluemundra, which rifes far amidft the mountains of Thibet, joins the Baghyretty at Deuprag. Here Mr. Rennel, on the authority of Mr. Daniell, places a middle Gangoutra. A few miles below the city of Sirinagur it affumes the name of Ganges, and retains it the reft of its courfe: it flows through the remainder of Sirinagur to Hardwar, where it rufhes through another Gangontra, through a gap in the Seralic chain, unheard of before, till pointed out to us by the investigation of Mr. Daniell. As to the Alucmundra, he reprefents it as a river confined through a rocky channel only a hundred yards wide, and of immenfe rapidity, and croffed by rope bridges of peculiar conftructions.

"Mr. Daniell's travels in this part of Hindoftan were attended. with great difficulties, but with all the pleasure that muft attend the elegant mind of the fine artift. In this part of his journey he croffed the Ganges, in about Lat. 28° 30' to Sumbrul; easterly to Darunaghur, Afulghur, Nejigabad, and the Hurdwar; from thence he returned through the foreft at the foot of the Servalic mountains to Loldong, continued his arduous route to Condawar Ghaut, entered the pafs there, and made a fix days journey over the mountains to Sirinagur. What a feast may the public expect of intellectual and vifual enter. tainment from the production of a pencil, of which they have had already a tafte fo fully fatisfactory." P. 164.

Mr. P. afterwards traces, with equal minutenefs, the courfe of the ftill mightier Burrampooter, and travels with Mr. Saunders and Mr. Bogle, their lateft explorers,,through the lofty regions of Thibet, Bootan, and the adjoining kingdoms on that eastern frontier of Hindoftan: accompanying his defcription with two very grand and picturefque views of the romantic country defcribed; mountains whofe lofty fummits are covered with eternal fnow, while their fides are black with forefts

of