2 S« E. Peal — 'Report on a visit to the [No. 1, 



orderly and his mate in charge of my arms and instruments, &c., a cook 

 used to camping, a Khampti boatman and his Duania mate, and, subse- 

 quently a Singphu guide,— as small a party as possible. 



Among us all we could manage to speak English, Hindustani, Bengali, 

 Sonthali, Assamese, Khampti or Shan, Singphu, and Naga. 



The lingua franca of the party was Assamese, though as we went east 

 Singphii and then Naga of the Namrup was chiefly spoken to outsiders. 



Three Alpine tents, 7 ft. x 7 ft., weighing about 8 ft» each, poles 

 included, enabled us at any moment to camp comfortably and very quickly ; 

 at the same time, when rolled up they served as padded poles on which to tie 

 baggage. Six small and extremely light boxes, measuring 10 in. x 12 in., 

 X 18 in. and provided with locks and hinges, served to carry stores, presents 

 and sundries securely, a great object being to avoid bulky and heavy or open 

 packages. As it was desirable to explore the Namtsik river and Nongyang 

 lake, a small dug-out (Rob Roy) was also taken slung on a bamboo between 

 two men, with bedding stowed inside. A Snider carbine, a double-barrelled 

 central-fire No. 12 shot-gun, a revolver, and a Deringer were the arms. 



Our first day's march was east to Jaipur, at the junction of the 

 Dhodur Ali with the Dihing river, formerly a place of considerable import- 

 ance, and likely to become so again. Large steamers can reach it from the 

 Brahmaputra in the rains, and small ones during about eight months of 

 the year. Coal, petroleum, and timber are also to be found in large quanti- 

 ties not far off. It is also the point at which a route from Burmah would 

 practically emerge. Government has wisely reserved large tracts of forest 

 U2>stream, and already some teak has been planted. 



The first care on arrival was to secure a good boat for the heavy stores 

 to go by water up the Dihing, and, this done, an application in person to 

 old Turkong, of the Phakial or Khampti village, secured me a good boatman 

 named Mung, a Khampti who has piloted many up and down this river, 

 who knows all the people, villages, and folk-lore of these parts, and is withal 

 intelligent and communicative. By noon all supplies of rice, tobacco, salt, 

 opium, cloths, sugar, &c, were stowed, and six of the men started lightly 

 laden, by land, the rest of us in the large canoe. 



Soon after leaving the station of Jaipur we passed up some very 

 beautiful reaches of the river, where the water, deep and still, slowly winds 

 among wooded hills (the gorge in fact), with huge bedded sandstone rocks 

 along the flanks covered by ferns, bamboos, wild plantains, canes, and other 

 products of a sub-tropical jungle. Towering above all, here and there, rose 

 the great bare branches of dead rubber-trees, once so plentiful and now so 

 rare, a silent protest against reckless tapping. 



Some of the reaches are nearly a mile long, water 30 and 40 feet deep, 

 though here and there becoming more shallow and rapid. 



