1881.] Nongyang Lake, on tlw Burmese Frontier. 13 



had ever seen a white person before (when the surveyors were there). 

 Though taken aback, they evinced no distrust, and by signs I called the 

 lads to haul my canoe up the top rapid ; soon after my followers came up, 

 and my guide could talk to the lads. They were from a village up on the 

 northern flank of the Patkai. The dress and general appearance of these 

 Nagas was almost precisely the same as of those found up the Tirap valley, 

 twenty miles west. 



As we ascended the Namtsik it maintained its picturesque look, a suc- 

 cession of deep still pools, often overhung by rock and trees, shallows and 

 rapids here and there blocked by fallen trees, at times long ledges of dark 

 slippery rock with narrow channels, through which the river rushed, mak- 

 ing it difficult to get the canoes over. In places the gorge was almost 

 in twilight, in consequence of the masses of foliage all around and above, 

 where it was not always possible to see. much sky. The large whitish 

 trunks of immense trees (hulong and mehai more especially) here and 

 there rose very conspicuously against the darker background ; there were 

 also many large trees that seemed new to us. Hiduhs, or Hylobates, 

 the black gibbon, were very common, and made the forest echo with their 

 hallooings. The great hornbill, too, was seen in flocks of twenty and 

 thirty at a time, and could easily be heard, as their wings seemed to 

 rasp the air, from a quarter to half a mile off. Otters were common, and 

 made off with a great fuss ; no doubt, from the signs we saw, they have a 

 nice time of it. 



At one place we came to a huge mehai stem hanging or projecting out 

 in the air from the jungle on the left hand ; after passing under I got 

 out of the canoe and scrambled up on it, the stem was fully four feet thick, 

 and projected about thirty. On walking back on it, and dividing the 

 jungle with my knife, I found it was poised on its centre on an island, and 

 that an equally large portion overhung the other branch of the stream, — it 

 had evidently been carried along and lodged there during some big flood. 



Towards the afternoon we began to get glimpses of dark green and 

 blue forest-covered hills not far off to the south, the group of Sonkap Biim 

 on which there were several Naga villages. The highest peak of the ridge 

 is about 3,000 feet, and as it stands well out north of the main range 

 of Patkai, it affords some magnificent views. 



At 5 p. M. we arrived at the mouth of a small dark gully, which the 

 guide said was the route to the Tkak Naga villages. Here we camped, and 

 in the early morning arranged all the loads carefully. Three men were 

 then left in charge of the boats, while the rest of us went up to the 

 village. 



For some way the path led up the rough and slippery stream bed, 

 subsequently over a level spur, through clearings, where we had to scram- 



