A little to the south-west of Buxar we passed a large town with some neat mosques and the remains of a fort, named Chowsar, and a little further the mouth of a considerable river, the Caramnasa, whose singular properties I have before mentioned. It is for this river, which crosses the great road from Calcutta to Benares, that the ropebridge exhibited by Mr. Shakespear at Cossipoor was intended by the Baboo Ramchunder Narain. At this place it is the boundary between the provinces of Bahar and Allahabad, and was, till the administration of Warren Hastings, who pushed on the border to Benares, the extreme limit of the Company's territories. How vastly have they since been extended! The river is here much contracted in width, as might be expected after getting above the junction of so many great tributary streams, and the banks are generally high and abrupt. The country has but little timber in comparison with Bengal, but would not be thought deficient in this respect in most parts of Europe. The trees are round-topped, few palms being seen, and the cultivation, wheat, oats, and pulse, intermixed with grass leys covered with vast herds of cattle.

In passing along a colly, which we entered a little after we left the Caramnasa, I heard some disputing on deck, and suddenly found the boat going over to the other side of the stream.