An Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama in Tibet - Prajna Quest

396 BOOTAN.on their arrows. Fortunately for them, it has not all the bad eftectsthey dread from it. I had an opportunity of seeing several who werewounded with these arrows, and they all did well, though under thegreatest apprehension. The cleaning and enlarging some of the wounds,was the most that I found necessary to be done. The paste is pungentand acrid, will increase inflammation, and may make a bad orneglected wound, mortal ; but it certainly does not possess any specificquality as a poison.The fir, so common in this country, is perhaps the only tree theycould convert to a useful and profitable purpose. What I have seenwould not, from their situation, be employed as timber. The largestI have yet met with, were near Wandipore ;they measured from eightto ten feet in circumference, were tall and straight. Such near the Burrampooter,or any navigable river, might certainly be transported toan advantageous market. I am convinced that any quantity of tar,pitch, turpentine, and resin, might be made in this country, much tothe emolument of the natives.Firs, which from their size and situationare unfit for timber, would answer the purpose equally well.The processfor procuring tar and turpentine issimple, and does not requirethe construction of expensive works- This great object has been solittle attended to, that they are supplied from Bengal, with what theywant of these articles.The country about Tassesudon contains a great variety of soil,andmuch rock of many different forms ; but still is an unpromising fieldfor a mineralist.I have not found in Boutan, a fossil that had the leastappearance of containing any other metal than iron, and a small portion