cane, rice, Coix, and maize; Most of the others were
not so well suited to pasturage as those of higher
localities. Dwarf Date palm occurs by the roadside at
5000 feet elevation.
Nuhklow is placed at the northern extremity of
a broad spur that overhangs the valley of the Burram-
pooter river, thirty miles distant. The elevation of
the bungalow is 4,688 feet, and the climate being hot,
it swarms with mosquitos, fleas, and rats. I t . commands
a superb view to the north, of the Himalayan
snows, of the Burrampooter, and the intervening malarious
T e ra i; and to the south, of the undulating
Khasia, with Kollong rock hearing south-west.
A thousand feet below the bungalow, a tropical
forest begins, containing figs, birches, horse-chesnuts,
oaks, and nutmegs, in the gulleys, and tall pines on the
dry slopes. The pines grow down to the very bottom
of the valley in which flows the Bor-panee; many of
them are eighty feet high, and three or four in
diameter, but none form gigantic trees. The quantity
of balsams in the wet ravines is very great, and tree-
ferns of several kinds are common.
The Bor-panee is a broad and rapid river that descends
from Chillong, and winds round the base of
the Nunklow sp u r; it is about forty yards wide, and is
spanned by an elegant iron suspension-bridge, clamped
to the rocks on either h an k ; beneath the bridge is a
series of cascades, none high, but all of great beauty
from the broken masses of rocks and picturesque
scenery on either side. We frequently botanised along
the river with great success: many curious plants grow
on its rocky banks, and amongst them Rhododendron
formosum at the low elevation of 2000 feet. A most
splendid fern, Dipteris Wallichii, is abundant, with the
dwarf Date palm and Cycas pectinata.
Wild animals are very abundant here, though extremely
rare on the higher part of the Khasia range;
tigers, however, and bears, ascend to Nunklow. We
saw troops of wild dogs, deer, and immense quantities
of the droppings of the wild elephant; an animal
considered in Assam dangerous to meet, whereas in
other parts of India it is not dreaded till provoked.
There is, however, no quadruped that varies more
in its native state than th is ; and an experienced judge
will tell at once whether the newly caught elephant is
from Assam, Silhet, Cuttack, Nepal, or Chittagong.
Some of the differences in size, roundness of shoulders
and hack, quantity of hair, length of limb, and shape
of head, are very marked; and their dispositions are
equally various.
The Nunklow spur is covered with enormous
rounded blocks of syenite, reposing on clay or on
one another. These do not descend the hill, and are
the remains of an extensive formation which we could
only find in situ at one spot on the road to Myrung,
but which must have been of immense thickness. One
block within ten yards of the bungalow door was
fifteen feet long, six high, and eight broad; it appeared
half buried, and was rapidly decomposing from the
action of the rain. Close by, to the westward, in
walking amongst the masses we were reminded of
a moraine of most gigantic sized blocks; one which I