Himalayan Journals, vol 2, J. D. Hooker [small books to read txt] 📗

and beyond it scattered

stunted pines are met with; a tree which seems to avoid the

sandstone. In the evening we arrived at Nonkreem, a large village in a broad marshy valley, where we procured accommodation with some

difficulty, the people being by no means civil, and the Rajah, Sing Manuk, holding himself independent of the British Government.

Atmospheric denudation and weathering have produced remarkable

effects on the lower part of the Nonkreem valley, which is blocked up by a pine-crested hill, 200 feet high, entirely formed of round

blocks of granite, heaped up so as to resemble an old moraine; but

like the Nunklow boulders, these are not arranged as if by glacial

action. The granite is micaceous, and usually very soft, decomposing into a coarse reddish sand, that colours the Boga-panee. To procure the iron-sand, which is disseminated through it, the natives conduct water over the beds of granite sand, and as the lighter particles are washed away, the remainder is removed to troughs, where the

separation of the ore is completed. The smelting is very rudely

carried on in charcoal fires, blown by enormous double-action

bellows, worked by two persons, who stand on the machine, raising the flaps with their hands, and expanding them with their feet, as shown in the cut further on. There is neither furnace nor flux used in the reduction. The fire is kindled on one aide of an upright stone (like the head-stone of a grave), with a small arched hole close to the

ground: near this hole the bellows are suspended; and a bamboo tube from each of its compartments, meets in a larger one, by which the

draught is directed under the hole in the stone to the fire. The ore is run into lumps as large as two fists, with a rugged surface: these lumps are afterwards cleft nearly in two, to show their purity.

Illustration--NONKREEM VILLAGE.

The scenery about Nonkreem village is extremely picturesque, and we procured many good plants on the rocks, which were covered with the purple-flowered Orchid, Coelogyne Wallichii. The country is

everywhere intersected with trenches for iron-washing, and some

large marshes were dammed up for the same purpose: in these we found some beautiful balsams, Hypericum and Parnassia; also a

diminutive water-lily, the flower of which is no larger than a

half-crown; it proves to be the Nymphaea pygmaea of China and

Siberia--a remarkable fact in the geographical distribution

of plants.

Illustration--BELLOWS.

From Nonkreem we proceeded easterly to Pomrang, leaving Chillong hill on the north, and again crossing the Bega-panee, beyond which the

sandstone appeared (strike north-east and dip north-west 60

degrees); the soil was poor in the extreme; not an inhabitant or tree was to be seen throughout the grassy landscape, and hardly a bush,

save an occasional rhododendron, dwarf oak, or Pieris, barely a few inches high.

At Pomrang we took up our quarters in an excellent empty bungalow,

built by Mr. Stainforth (Judge of Silhet), who kindly allowed us the use of it. Its elevation was 5,143 feet, and it occupied the eastern extremity of a lofty spur that overhangs the deep fir-clad valley of the Oongkot, dividing Khasia from Jyntea. The climate of Pomrang is so much cooler and less rainy than at Churra, that this place is more eligible for a station; but the soil is quite impracticable, there is an occasional scarcity of water, the pasture is wholly unsuited for cattle or sheep, and the distance from the plains is too great.

A beautiful view extends eastwards to the low Jyntea hills, backed by the blue mountains of Cachar, over the deep valley in front; to the northward, a few peaks of the Himalaya are seen, and westward is

Chillong. We staid here till the 23rd September, and then proceeded south-eastward to Mooshye. The path descends into the valley of the Oongkot, passing the village of Pomrang, and then through woods of

pine, Gordonia, and oak, the latter closely resembling the English, and infested with galls. The slopes are extensively cultivated with black awnless unirrigated rice, and poor crops of Coix, protected from the birds by scarecrows of lines stretched across the fields,

bearing tassels and tufts of fern, shaken by boys. This fern proved to be a very curious and interesting genus, which is only known to

occur elsewhere at Hong-Kong in China, and has been called

Bowringia, after the eminent Dr. Bowring.

We crossed the river* [Podostemom grew on the stones at the bottom: it is a remarkable waterplant, resembling a liver-wort in its mode of growth. Several species occur at different elevations in the Khasia, and appear only in autumn, when they often carpet the bottom of the streams with green. In spring and summer no traces of them are seen; and it is difficult to conceive what becomes of the seeds in the

interval, and how these, which are well known, and have no apparent provision for the purpose, attach themselves to the smooth rocks at the bottom of the torrents. All the kinds flower and ripen their

seeds under water; the stamens and pistil being protected by the

closed flower from the wet. This genus does not inhabit the Sikkim

rivers, probably owing to the great changes of temperature to which these are subject.] twice, proceeding south-west to Mooshye, a

village placed on an isolated, flat-topped, and very steep-sided

hill, 4,863 feet above the sea, and perhaps 3,500 above the Oongkot, which winds round its base. A very steep path led up slate rocks to the top (which was of sandstone), where there is a stockaded

guard-house, once occupied by British troops, of which we took

possession. A Labiate plant (Mesona Wallichiana) grew on the

ascent, whose bruised leaves smelt as strongly of patchouli, as do

those of the plant producing that perfume, to which it is closely

allied. The Pogostemon Patchouli has been said to occur in these

parts of India, but we never met with it, and doubt the accuracy of the statement. It is a native of the Malay peninsula, whence the

leaves are imported into Bengal, and so to Europe.

The summit commands a fine view northward of some Himalayan peaks,

and southwards of the broad valley of the Oongkot, which is level,

and bounded by steep and precipitous hills, with flat tops. On the

25th we left Mooshye for Amwee in Jyntea, which lies to the

south-east. We descended by steps cut in the sandstone, and fording the Oongkot, climbed the hills on its east side, along the grassy

tops of which we continued, at an elevation of 4000 feet. Marshy

flats intersect the hills, to which wild elephants sometimes ascend, doing much damage to the rice crops. We crossed a stream by a bridge formed of one gigantic block of sandstone, 20 feet long, close to the village, which is a wretched one, and is considered unhealthy: it

stands on the high road from Jynteapore (at the foot of the hills to the southward) to Assam: the only road that crosses the mountains

east of that from Churra to Nunklow.

Illustration--OLD BRIDGE AT AMWEE.

Though so much lower, this country, from the barrenness of the soil, is more thinly inhabited than the Khasia. The pitcher-plant

(Nepenthes) grows on stony and grassy hills about Amwee, and crawls along the ground; its pitchers seldom contain insects in the wild

state, nor can we suggest any special function for the wonderful

organ it possesses.

About eight miles south of the village is a stream, crossed by a

bridge, half of which is formed of slabs of stone (of which one is

twenty-one feet long, seven broad, and two feet three and a half

inches thick), supported on piers, and the rest is a well turned

arch, such as I have not seen elsewhere among the hill tribes of

India. It is fast crumbling away, and is covered with tropical

plants, and a beautiful white-flowered orchis* [_Diplomeris;

Apostasia_ also grew in this gulley, with a small Arundina, some

beautiful species of Sonerila, and Argostemma. The neighbourhood was very rich in plants.] grew in the mossy crevices of its stones.

From Amwee our route lay north-east across the Jyntea hills to

Joowye, the hill-capital of the district. The path gradually

ascended, dipping into valleys scooped out in the horizontal

sandstone down to the basalt; and boulders of the same rock were

scattered about. Fields of rice occupy the bottoms of these valleys, in which were placed gigantic images of men, dressed in rags, and

armed with bows and arrows, to scare away the wild elephants! Slate rocks succeed the sandstone (strike north-east, dip north-west), and with them pines and birch appear, clothing the deep flanks of the

Mintadoong valley, which we crossed.

The situation of Joowye is extremely beautiful: it occupies the

broken wooded slope of a large open flat valley, dotted with pines; and consists of an immense number of low thatched cottages, scattered amongst groves of bamboo, and fields of plantain, tobacco, yams,

sugar-cane, maize, and rice, surrounded by hedges of bamboo,

Colquhounia, and Erythrina. Narrow steep lanes lead amongst

these, shaded with oak, birch, Podocarpus, Camellia, and

Araliaceae; the larger trees being covered with orchids, climbing palms, Pothos, Scindapsus, pepper, and Gnetum; while masses of

beautiful red and violet balsams grew under every hedge and rock.

The latter was of sandstone, overlying highly inclined schists, and afforded magnificent blocks for the natives to rear on end, or make seats of. Some erect stones on a hill at the entrance are immensely large, and surround a clump of fine fig and banyan trees.* [In some tanks we found Hydropeltis, an American and Australian plant allied to Nymphaea. Mr. Griffith first detected it here, and afterwards in Bhotan, these being the only known habitats for it in the Old World.

It grows with Typha, Acorus Calamus (sweet flag), _Vallisneria,

Potamogeton, Sparganium,_ and other European water-plants.]

We procured a good house after many delays, for the people were far from obliging; it was a clean, very long cottage, with low thatched eaves almost touching the ground, and was surrounded by a high bamboo paling that enclosed out-houses built on a well-swept floor of beaten earth. Within, the woodwork was carved in curious patterns, and was particularly well fitted. The old lady to whom it belonged got tired of us before two days were over, and first tried to smoke us out by a large fire of green wood at that end of the cottage which she

retained; and afterwards by inviting guests to a supper, with whom

she kept up a racket all night. Her son, a tall, sulky fellow, came to receive the usual gratuity on our departure, which we made large to show we bore no ill-will: he, however, behaved so scornfully,

pretending to despise it, that I had no choice but to pocket it

again; a proceeding which was received with shouts of laughter, at

his expense, from a large crowd of bystanders.

On the 30th of September we proceeded north-east from Joowye to

Nurtiung, crossing the watershed of the Jyntea range, which is

granitic, and scarcely raised above the mean level of the hills; it is about 4,500 feet elevation. To the north the descent is at first rather abrupt for 500 feet, to a considerable stream, beyond which is the village of Nurtiung. The country gradually declines hence to the north-east, in grassy hills; which to the east become higher and

more wooded: to the west the Khasia are seen, and several Himalayan peaks to the north.

The ascent to the village from the river is by steps cut in a narrow cleft of the schist rocks, to a flat, elevated 4,178 feet above the sea: we here procured a cottage, and found the people remarkably