MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 314 
down, and there was not much to choose between them for difficulty. Facilis 
descensus may apply to Avernus. I have not been there, but it ;is not true of 
the Chin hills. Half past six one sunny morning in April found us all ready. 
Guns, butterfly nets, and a few gut casts and flies were our impediments 
which we made the pilgrim carry. . He deserves a word of description. Hadji 
Mahomed Khan is one of those very tall solemn Pathans who seem veritable 
descendants of the Wandering Jew in features and proclivities. He has per- 
formed the Haj and is as good tempered and powerful as a St. Bernard pup. 
He exacts homage from the Hindus by his size, and from the Mussulmans by 
his piety. 
Far below the waving sea of bamboos which clothe the hill side, we can 
make out the belt of heavy timber marking the little hill stream we wish to 
follow. The hill side is steep and covered with the dry slippery bamboo leaves. 
Toboganning with wooden seats to our pants seems the best way of proceeding, 
but it is too late to adopt that plan. After a few casts we decided to follow 
down a small spur between two streams ; this decision was mainly arrived at by 
our both sliding down the spur ina small avalanche of rubbish. On we went— 
the slope getting steeper and steeper—till we had to hand ourselves down from 
tree to tree and had finally to take to the little stream, which here consisted 
of deep pools with miniature cafions and precipices, We sidled along their faces— 
oh, how wet the water looked !—grasping ferns, roots, and bamboos. Here 
and there we made impromptu bridges of nervously flexible bamboos, across 
which we sidled with the want of grace of the amateur rope-dancer. Each 
narrow shave was greeted with encouraging chuckles and inward disappoint- 
ment. The nullah became more and more like a knife-gash in the hill side, 
and at last we came to a narrow pass a hundred yards long with per- 
pendicular sides, through which in two feet of water we splashed and 
found ourselves at the foot of the hill in a little open glade. 
The vegetation all round was so clean that, after going 50 yards on, we 
could not distingush the path we had come down. We had been in deep 
shade the whole way down, and the only butterflies we had seen were a few 
Melanitis and one or two skippers. We disturbed one barking deer, and once 
a loud whirring close by told us we had startled a pheasant. It was still early 
when we started down the main stream. It was very beautiful, and a true 
wild forest landscape, with the luxuriant profusion of growth which is so 
hard to describe, but which tempts particularization. The charm of the early 
morning was on everything. The sunlight danced on the pools and sent 
emerald shafts of light through the little bosky dells. There were tall forest 
trees clothed with moss and wearing buttonholes of brilliant orchids. Here 
and there a fallen giant lay, partially propped up by his brethren and covered 
‘with a hoary fringe of grey-beard moss. Hverywhere the bamboos rustled 
and filled in the spaces left between the big trees with feathery fronds. 
Gigantic creepers covered with blossoms tied the big trees together and spread 
20 q 
