f
torture, I was not actually sitting on the spikes, but the spikes caught
me in the back just below the waist.

My guard having been augmented by twenty or thirty mounted men with
muskets and swords, we set off at a furious pace. A horseman riding in
front of me led my pony by means of a cord, as my hands were manacled
behind my back. Thus we travelled across country for many miles.

Except for those awful spikes in the saddle, the ride would not have
been so bad. The pony I rode was a spirited animal, and the country
around was curious and interesting. We proceeded along a succession of
yellow sand-hills, some of them as high as two or three hundred feet,
others not more than twenty or thirty feet. The sand seemed to have been
deposited more by wind than water, though it is also possible that the
whole basin, not very high above the level of the huge stream, may at
some time have been altogether under water. The whole space between the
mountain range to the north of the Brahmaputra and the river itself was
covered with these sand-mounds, except in certain places where the soil
was extremely marshy. Here our ponies sank in deep, soft mud. We
splashed across several rivulets and skirted a number of ponds. From the
summit of a hill on which they led me, I could see that the hills were
of much greater circumference and height near the river, becoming
smaller and smaller as they approached the mountain range to the north.
They increased in number and size the farther we went in an easterly
direction.

The circumstances under which I was now travelling did not permit me to
make accurate investigations as to where the sand came from. A mere
glance at the country all round made me feel sure that the sand had been
conveyed from the south. This could be plainly seen from depressions and
wave-like undulations, showing that it had travelled (roughly) in a
northerly direction. I was fairly convinced that the sand had been
deposited there by the wind, which had carried it from the plains of
India over the Himahlyan chain.

My guard scoured the country from the high point of vantage on which we
had ascended. Away in the distance, to the east, we saw a large number
of horsemen raising clouds of dust. Riding down the hill, our ponies
sinking in soft sand, we set off in the direction of the new-comers, the
ground at the bottom of the hill being somewhat harder.

We travelled mile after mile at an unpleasant pace, until we arrived