COLLECTION OF OPIIIDIA FROM THE CHIN HILLS. 333 



toy the young shoots of the elm. In February the lower edges of 

 the jungle and the entire hillside to far below the station is 

 whitened by the snowy blossoms of the wild pear (Pyrus 'pashia) 

 .and a little later the wild rose (Rosa longicuspis) begins to produce 

 its spring flowers, and almost throughout the year covers many a 

 bush and tree with its sweet scented sprays. 



Below this jungle are a few scattered trees on slopes of coarse 

 grass mingled with gigantic thistles (Onicus sp. ? wallichii) 

 toracken and other herbaceous plants, and the jungle stretches its 

 long fingers down one or two watercourses. Below the grassland 

 .a more or less open woodland begins, consisting for the most 

 part of shrubs, small alders, pears, oaks and chestnuts and other 

 similar trees with occasional groves of pine (Pinus Jchasia), and 

 this jungle, broken by patches of short grass having very much 

 the appearance of English commons, spreads down to the valley 

 some 2,000 feet below. The more open nature of this woodland 

 and its stunted character is due, it is believed, to clearance by the 

 Chins at some previous date for their extravagant form of cultiva- 

 tion (Taungya) and to their custom of burning to which refer- 

 ence will be made when dealing with the climate. Below the 

 station, is a collection of Chin villages and in the valley a small 

 .stream, the Trongvar, flows. The hillside is intersected everywhere 

 toy little rivulets, some of which disappear in the dry weather, 

 while in the rains they all become foaming torrents and carve their 

 channels deeper and deeper into the surface the lower they descend. 

 Wherever a suitable hollow occurs a small marsh is formed, and in 

 the cold weather streams and marshes are the haunts of woodcock 

 ■and two or three species of snipe. The hillsides are generally very 

 steep but a pleasant exception to this rule is the so-called " golf- 

 course" on the neck about half a mile west of the station, where 

 there is open grassland throwing off some delightful undulating- 

 downs. 



The climate consists of three well-marked seasons. The rains, 

 during which most of the snakes emerge, last from the middle of 

 May to the middle of November, roughly speaking, but this year 

 (1909) the previous Christmas rains having failed a very short hot 

 season was experienced, the rainy season setting in early in April. 



