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

12 BENGAL.The situation of this district exhibits a melancholy proof of differentfacts too frequently united;, the great facility of obtaining food,and, at the same time, the wretched indigence of tlie lower order ofinhabitants.At six o'clock on the morning of the 1 1th of May, we departed fromCooch Bahar, and travelled near the banks of the river Toorsha, forupwards of three miles.The land was low and marshy, interspersedwith thick woods, and with many nullahs, or rivulets, having not morethan three feet depth of water. The whole face of the country wasdreary and unpleasant, being thinly inhabited, and sparingly cultivated.No animals appeared to enliven and cheer the scene, excepthere and there a solitary hargheela", or maunukjoor°.The vegetationwas coarse ;the ground being almost every where clothed with rankgrass, reeds, and fern. We crossed some creeks, whose water waschin deep; a rainy day would have rendered them absolutely unfordable.We now entered the dreary region which divides the districtof Cooch Bahar, the present frontier of Bengal, from the country ofBootan, and which, from its inaptitude to supply the wants, or facilitatethe functions, of human life, may be considered as appertainingproperly to neither. Its extent, from the foot of the chain of mountains,with which the district or principality of Bootan commences, islittle less than twenty-five miles.We passed through a wood called the Pi st ajar-wood, in which many" A bird, the largest species of the crnne kind, which feeds only on putrid flesh,snakes, and frogs.It is commonly called by the English in Bengal, Adjutant." A water fowl of the crane species.