336 TO THE KHASIA MOUNTAINS 



plants, which, as I always say, puts the ordinary vasculum 

 hors de combat in an hour ; as to your notions of drying 

 paper 80 Ibs. is not a great collection for one day, and one 

 and a half ream of paper to put them in (Tom adds * at the 

 very least '). Compared to the 4500 feet of Sikkim Himalaya 

 (to which these mountains botanically answer), the latter is 

 literally a poor botanising country ; but again we have 

 here no region like the 5-10,000 feet of Sikkim, nor of the 

 Arctic of 10-17,000 feet. 



Our collections, including those of this morning, amount 

 to 1176 species, gathered since leaving Dacca ; of which 

 800 were gathered since we quitted Punduah this excludes 

 all the species we found in these hills which we had gathered 

 in the plains, and a great mass of un-numbered things out 

 of flower. I am safe in saying that 1000 species might be 

 gathered within five miles of Churra in a week. 



Hodgsonia is in fruit and quite a different plant from 

 the Sikkim one ; so it is well you have stopped its premature 

 debut, as the confusion of plants and plates of ^Roxburgh's 

 and mine would have been a terrible business. I have a 

 fine fruit in spirits for you ; it is not ribbed, and differently 

 shaped. 



Despite the rains and the limitation of local supplies, both 

 friends kept well and hearty. 



July 20, 1850. 



Tommy Thomson and I get on capitally together and 

 pray tell Aunt Harriet, with my love, that he can still ' eat 

 through anything ' as well as your well-appetised son. We 

 are getting on very comfortably here. Mrs. Inglis, of Churra, 

 sends us every day, by the post which goes on to Assam, a 

 tin with a fresh loaf of bread, pat of butter, and a muffin ! 

 We get plenty of fowls and eggs, and occasionally vegetables, 

 but little or no milk : for these savages, the * Khassya ' 

 people, though they keep cows, haVe a prejudice (not religions) 

 against milk ! I think this is almost a unique feature in the 

 human race. We are extremely busy, as you may suppose, 

 more so than we ever were before, and are making enormous 

 collections of plants, but have much less time than we could 

 desire for the microscope and examination, still less for 

 drawing and none for other pursuits. The climate is cool 



