GAME OF ASSAM 43 i 



29 feet high ; the upright are for the male, the flat for their 

 female relations. 



There is a bridge at Nurting made of a single slab of the 

 following dimensions : length 30 feet, width 9 feet, depth 2 J feet. 

 As there is no stone of the description in the neighbourhood, 

 these must have been brought many miles. 



The Jynteahs are very similar to the Cossyahs, but perhaps a 

 finer race, but of the same stock. In former days they were 

 possessed of great wealth and power, but successive rebellions 

 and invasions of our territory by them led to their ruin. Our 

 Gurkhas had no difficulty in thrashing them soundly, and they 

 are not likely to repeat their raids in future. Their wealth 

 consists in oranges and betel-nut groves, limestone, coal, slate, 

 and in growing and exporting to Calcutta and Dacca vast 

 quantities of potatoes. 



Gowhatty, formerly the capital of the Province, is a very 

 unhealthy place, but since Assam has become a Chief Commis- 

 sionership, the head-quarters have been fixed at Shillong. 



The whole country teems with game, which is never likely 

 to be exterminated, for where it lives the land is useless for 

 other purposes, and its pursuit is too costly to enable the 

 bog-trotters to go in for wholesale destruction, and the chances 

 are, not a few would die of malarial fever. The fishing, too, is 

 unsurpassed in India ; the lordly mahseer can be caught in 

 many of the hill streams, and fish up to 80 Ibs. have been 

 snared with a rod and line, but the largest 7 ever caught only 

 weighed 44 Ibs. 



At the foot of the Bhootan range we have elephants, gaur, 

 gayal, buffaloes, rhinoceros, marsh deer, sambur, hog deer, 

 barking deer, spotted deer, tigers, leopards, and bears. In two 

 localities one to the north, and the other to the south of the 

 Manass in Bagh Dooar there are a few antelope ; the spotted 

 deer are also found at a place called Huttee Muttee Coochgar 

 in the Mungledye subdivision. 1 In the vast plains and in the 

 churs and deserted beds of the Brahmapootra now quagmires 



1 Also in a valley close to Bagh Dooar there are several herds of the 

 dappled beauties. The Royal Natural History, misled by Mr. Blandford, 

 states there are no spotted deer in Assam. Quite an error, as I have seen 

 herds and shot some myself. F. T. P. 



