Assam face of the mountains. The road runs between
the extensive and populous native village, or poonji,
on the left, and a deep valley on the right, and commands
a beautiful view of more waterfalls.
We passed Lailang-kot, a village full of iron forges,
from a height near which a splendid view is obtained
over the Churra flat. A few old and very stunted
shrubs of laurel and Symplocos grow on its bleak
surface, and these are often sunk from one to three
feet in hollows in the horizontally stratified sandstone.
I could only account for these by supposing them to
be caused by the drip from the trees, and if so, it is a
wonderful instance of the wearing effects of water, and
of the great age which small bushes sometimes attain.
At about 5000 feet the country is very open and
bare, the ridges being so uniform and flat-topped, that
the broad valleys they divide are hidden till their precipitous
edges are reached; and the eye wanders far to
the east and west over a desolate level grassy country,
unbroken, save by the curious flat-topped hills I have
before described. These features continue for eight
miles, when a sudden descent of 600 or 700 feet, leads
into the valley of the Kala-panee (Black water) river,
where there is a very dark and damp bungalow, which
proved a great accommodation to us.
Beyond the Kala-panee, a high ridge is gained above
the valley of the Boga-panee, the largest river in the
Khasia; and from this the Bhotan Himalaya may be
seen in clear weather, at the astonishing distance of
from 160 to 200 miles! The vegetation here suddenly
assumes a different aspect, from the quantity of stunted
fir-trees clothing the north side of the valley, which
rises very steeply 1000 feet above the riv e r: quite
unaccountably, however, not one grows on the south
face. A new oak also appears abundantly; it has
leaves like the English, whose gnarled habit it also
assumes.
After descending a very steep slope, the road follows
a clear affluent of the Boga-panee, and winds along
the margin of that river, which is a rapid turbulent
stream, very muddy, and hence contrasting remarkably
with the Kala-panee. I t derives its mud from the decomposition
of granite, which is washed by the natives
for iron, and in which rock it rises to the eastward.
An elegant iron suspension-bridge is thrown across the
stream, from a rock matted with tufts of little parasitic
orchids. Crossing it, we came on many pine-trees;
these had five-years’ old cones on them, as well as
those of all succeeding years; they bear male flowers
in autumn, which impregnate the cones formed the previous
year. Thus, the cones formed in the spring of
1850 are fertilised in the following autumn, and do not
ripen their seeds till the second following autumn, that
of 1852.
A very steep ascent leads to the bungalow of
Moflong, on a broad, bleak hill-top, near the axis of
the range (alt. 6,062 feet). Here there is a village,
and some cultivation, surrounded by hedges of
Erythrina, Pieris, Yiburnum, and Pyrus, amongst
which grew an autumn-flowering larkspur, with most
foetid flowers,
We passed the end of June here, and experienced