176 KHASI HILLS. 



I will here quote the account I gave in connection with a continuous 

 series of meteorological observations in these hills 



Excessive floods. 



of a great flood which took place in the month 

 of June 1851 in these hills. During that month a heavy flood occurred 

 in the Boga Pani and other mountain streams, which caused much 

 injury, carried away several bridges, among others the iron suspension 

 bridge over the Boga Pani, and near the mouth of the same river 

 flooded and swept away a considerable portion of the large village 

 of Cheyla. It occurred on the 14th of the month, on which day 

 there was by no means so heavy a fall of rain as on many other days in 

 the same year, and a visit to the localities where the greatest damage 

 was done, at once showed that the greater proportion of the mischief 

 resulted not so much from the actual amount of rain that fell and the 

 rise of the waters consequent thereon, as from the waters being impeded 

 in their course and ponded back by numerous slips of earth and stones, 

 carrying down with them trees and under-wood. The torrent meet- 

 ing with such obstacles must have been restrained, until its accumu- 

 lated force burst through every barrier and swept every thing before 

 it. In parts of the Boga-pani valley, the rise was not less than 50 feet. 

 Next morning the richly wooded slopes of that valley were scored with 

 innumerable gullies and deep cuts, extending frequently from the level 

 of the water up to the very summit of the lofty banks. From one of 

 these deep cuts, in which a little trickling rill usually flowed, a mass 

 of stones of various sizes had been carried down, which I found, on a 

 rouoh calculation, to contain not less than five thousand tons of mate- 

 rial. The stones varied in size from 20 cubic feet to one or something 

 less ; but all the smaller and finer material had been entirely swept 

 away. Of the large suspension bridge which had spanned the river, 

 not a vestige was left ; a single screw bolt, which had formed one of the 

 fastenings of the wall plates, alone indicated that such a structure 

 had ever existed ; and when the waters had subsided, one of the heavy 



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