February 4, 1850.—­Gokurnath, thirteen miles, north-east, over a level plain of the same fine muteear soil, here and there running into doomuteea and bhoor, but in no case into oosur.  The first two miles over the grass plain, and the next four through a belt of forest trees, with rank grass and underwood, abounding in game of all kinds, and infested by tigers.  Bullocks are often taken by them, but men seldom.  The sal (alias sakhoo) trees are here stunted, gnarled, and ugly, while in the Tarae forest they are straight, lofty, and beautiful.  The reason is, that beyond the forest their leaves are stripped off and sold for plates.  They are carried to distant towns, and stored up for long periods, to form breakfast and dinner plates, and the people in the country use hardly anything else.  Plates are formed of them by sewing them together, when required; and they become as pliable as leather, even after being kept for a year or more, by having a little water sprinkled over them.  They are long, wide, and tough, and well suited to the purpose.  All kinds of food are put upon them, and served up to the family and guests.  The cattle do not eat them, as they do leaves of the peepul, bur, neem, &c.  The sakhoo, when not preserved, is cut down, when young, for beams, rafters, &c., required in building.  In the Tarae forest, the proprietors of the lands on which they stand preserve them till they attain maturity, for sale to the people of the plains; and they are taken down the Ghagra and other rivers that flow through the forest to the Ganges, and vast numbers are sold in the Calcutta market.  The fine tall sakhoos in the Tarae forest are called “sayer”; the knotted, stunted, and crooked shakoos, beyond the forest, are called “khohurs.”  There are but few teak (or sagwun) trees in this part of the Tarae forest.  The country is everywhere studded with the same fine groves and single trees, and requires only tillage to become a garden.  From the belt of jungle to our camp at Gokurnath, seven miles, the road runs over an open grass plain, with here and there a field of corn.  The sites of villages are numerous, but few of them are occupied at present.  All are said to have been in a flourishing state, and filled by a happy peasantry, when Hakeem Mehndee lost the government.  Since that time these villages and hamlets have diminished by degrees, in proportion as the rapacity of the contractors and the turbulence of the Rajpoot landholders have increased.

The first village we passed through, after emerging from the belt of jungle, was Pureylee, which is held and occupied by a large family of cultivating proprietors of the Koormee caste.  Up to the year 1847, it had for many years been in a good condition, and paid a revenue of two thousand rupees a-year to Government.  In that year Ahmud Allee, the collector, demanded a thousand more.  They could not pay this, and he sold all their bullocks and other stock to make up the demand; the lands became waste as usual; and