14G JUNGLE IN THE VALLEY OE THE CHENG REE. 



yards wide, and two feet deep. It was very muddy for a liill-streara. This 

 was not the effect of rain, of which there had been none for some weeks, 

 hut seemed an inseparable condition of all the streams here, as they flowed 

 through alluvial soil void of rock. 



The Myanee, sister river to the Chengree, is a somewhat larger stream, 

 and Hows between the KcUamoin and Dalamoin ranges. We eventually 

 worked east to the Myanee, and floated all our baggage down it to Eunga- 

 muttea on our return march. 



Ntv) Years Eve ! — There were no means of celebrating the occasion. I 

 was too hungry and tired to wait even for a special dinner to be prepared ; 

 so, consoling myself with morosely thinking that in sleeping tlie mystic 

 hours away I should probably be more sensibly employed than many of my 

 friends, I turned in and slept soundly till morning. 



January 1, 1876. — It was excessively cold this morning, and foggy till 

 some time after sunrise. Gool Budden and Suddar Ali's parties passed our 

 camp about 8 a.m., — Gool Budden's men to cross the Kalamoin range into 

 the Myanee valley, Suddar Ali's to surround the elephants spoken of before, 

 which were now about 28 miles further up the Chengree. I decided to 

 remain where I was (camp No. 5 on map), and await Wilson's arrival witli 

 the provision-boats up the Chengree, and then to act as circumstances might 

 require. 



The jungle was very fine along the Chengree, being open forest of huge 

 timber and giant creepers, with here and there patches of canes, the beauti- 

 fully glossy, dark-green, serrated leaves of which, like giant ferns, shone in 

 the morning sunlight. Nothing can be imagined more graceful or beau- 

 tiful than a cane-bush (the ordinary cane of commerce). It often grows in 

 extensive plots, but frequently in single plants, as a creeper running up trees, 

 and crowning them with graceful plumes. The cane requires a moist, rich 

 soil. There are several varieties : one makes the best walking-canes, another 

 is used for basket-work, a third for the rattan of chair-bottoms, &c. Several 

 of the men of our party were adepts at canework, and they made me many 

 nice and useful articles of camp furniture. 



Of all prickly tilings in creation the cane is perhaps the foremost, very 

 diiferent in its natural state to the smooth, but still pungent, implement of 

 our school-days' recollection. It grows of all lengths, often above 200 feet ; 

 and both stem, leaves, and tendrils are covered with horrible thorns. The 

 leaves are several feet long, serrated, and very graceful. Its fruit hangs in 

 clusters of about fifty berries, each being the size of a cherry, and of a briglit 

 cream colour, witli a singular appearance of being carved from wood. Tliey 

 are edible. Inside the skin is a sweet pulp surrounding the stone. The 



