forest. Several cypresses, overhanging the grave, were fancifully carved
on the inner side, and on one the shape of a heart was deeply engraved.

BUDDAH LAKE.

We were sadly disappointed in the appearance of the lake, which the
natives call the Buddah. It is a serpentine sheet of fresh water, of
rather more than a mile in length, and from three to four hundred yards in
breadth. Its depth was four fathoms; but it seemed as if it were now five
or six feet below the ordinary level. No stream either runs into it or
flows from it; yet it abounds in fish; from which circumstance I should
imagine that it originally owed its supply to the river during some
extensive inundation. Notwithstanding that we had crossed some rich tracts
of land in our way to it, the neighbourhood of the lake was by no means
fertile. The trees around it were in rapid decay, and the little
vegetation to be seen appeared to derive but little advantage from its
proximity to water.

EXTREME HEAT OF THE WEATHER.

We had started at early dawn; and the heat had become intolerable long ere
the sun had gained the meridian. It was rendered still more oppressive
from the want of air in the dense bushes through which we occasionally
moved. At 2 p.m. the thermometer stood at 129 degrees of Fahrenheit, in
the shade; and at 149 degrees in the sun; the difference being exactly 20
degrees. It is not to be wondered at that the cattle suffered, although
the journey was so short. The sun's rays were too powerful even for the
natives, who kept as much as possible in the shade. In the evening, when
the atmosphere was somewhat cooler, we launched the boat upon the lake,
in order to get some wild fowl and fish; but although we were tolerably