foliage. They were then uncovered, counted over thrice, and as many lists of them made out by three different scribes. Tavernier, who viewed all these things with the eyes of a jeweller, rather than as a traveller, curious to observe and examine, scrutinized them piece by piece, descanting upon their mercantile value, and the modes of cutting and polishing by which they might have been rendered more beautiful. In this mood he feasted his eyes upon diamonds of incomparable magnitude and lustre; upon chains of rubies, strings of orient pearls, amethysts, opals, topazes, and emeralds, various in form, and each reflecting additional light and beauty upon the other.
Having beheld these professional curiosities, he left the Mogul court, and proceeded by the ordinary route towards Bengal. The Ganges, where he crossed it, in company with Bernier, he found no larger than the Seine opposite the Louvre, an insignificant stream which scarcely deserves the name of a river. At Benares he observed the narrowest streets and the loftiest houses which he had seen in Hindostan, a circumstance remarked by all travellers, and among the rest by Heber, who says, "The houses are mostly lofty; none, I think, less than two stories, most of three, and several of five or six, a sight which I now for the first time saw in India. The streets, like those of Chester, are considerably lower than the ground floors of the houses, which have mostly arched rows in front, with little shops behind them. Above these the houses are richly embellished with verandahs, galleries, projecting oriel windows, and very broad and over-*hanging coves, supported by carved brackets." The opposite sides of the streets stand so near to each other in many places that they are united by galleries. The number of stone and brick houses in the city are upwards of twelve thousand, of clay houses sixteen thousand; and the population in 1803 con-
