332 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol XX. 



Geologically the chain is believed to belong to the Tertiary epoch 

 and consists chiefly of shales of a soft nature, which easily disintegrate 

 to form a stiff clayey soil, and a fair proportion of sandstones. 

 Limestone is uncommon and igneous rocks are perhaps nowhere 

 found near the surface, at any rate in the Haka Sub-division. 



The area consists, then, of a chain of mountains of moderate 

 height situated just within the tropics, and as might be inferred a 

 •semitropical vegetation exists, changing into tropical in the deeper 

 valleys where teak, palms, and such trees as the papaya are to be 

 found, and into quite a temperate form on the tops of the higher 

 mountains. 



Haka Sub-division is the most Southern of the three Sub-divisions 

 into which the Chin Hills District is divided, and Haka station is 

 situated some 6,500 feet above sea-level on the North-Western 

 slopes of a mountain near the Northern boundary of the Sub-divi- 

 sion. The point of the mountain range which is immediately 

 above the station is known as Haka peak and is supposed to be 

 7,500 feet high. A neck of open grassland, about half a mile to the 

 west of the station, connects the range with another running 

 parallel to the Haka range and of about the same general elevation. 

 This neck throws off its waters from one side into the Boinu river, 

 which after flowing in a gigantic S. reaches the sea at Akyab, and 

 from the other into the Manipur river, a tributary with the Myittha 

 river of the Chindwin. On either side of the station a spur runs 

 down from the peak, and the water collected between the two spurs 

 into a marshy hollow between the Civil station and the Military 

 police lines forms 'the supply of the community. The face of the 

 hill between the two spurs is clothed with dense jungle, practically 

 impenetrable in the rains but easily entered in most places in the 

 dry weather. This jungle stretches rather more than half way 

 down to the station and provides one of the loveliest views from 

 Haka. At one season it is tinged with the rich hues of autumn, a 

 species of Virginia Creeper contributing largely to the effect, at 

 another it is outlined by the brilliant flowers of Rhododendron ar- 

 boreum. In the cold weather the soft pink of the Cherry (Prunus 

 ■puddum) is shown in exquisite relief against the dark-green of the 

 forest, only to give place to the hardly less vivid contrast afforded 



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