1 

 1881.] Nongyang Lake, on the Burmese Frontier. 21 



Patkai at any rate. I then determined to lash my canoe in the large 

 arms of a big liingori tree, and did it so as to prevent its being blown, or 

 shaken down, resting it bottom up on three boughs ; being of a very 

 lasting timber, it may remain safely for some years to come, unless 

 elephants can reach it, which I doubt, or the Nagas hear of it from Lah. 



We therefore, instead of crossing for the Nongyang ford, started back 

 by the road we had come, and found the return to the pass comparatively 

 easy, it took but 2 hours or %\. There being no water on the crest, 

 I had made the men cook and carry extra rations and water in my kettle. 

 From the crest, it being a fine clear day, I made a sketch and took bearings 

 again, also by boiling-point thermometer at 4 p. m. and 9 P. M., and again 

 at 9 A. M., secured the altitude, which was worked out for me by Mr. H. F. 

 Blanford, to whom all the observations were submitted. Apparently, the 

 crest of the Patkai at the pass is about 3,500 feet above mean sea-level, 

 probably 3,000 above the bed of the Nambong on the Assam side, while 

 the Nongyang lake and valley stand at about 2,200 feet, showing, say, 

 nearly 1,300 feet difference in the levels. The valley of Assam, in fact, 

 being much the lowest, and the Nongyang lake lying about on a level with 

 the Sonkap villages. 



From the pass, looking southwards, the valley extends as an irregular 

 triangle for some eight or ten miles north and south, by three or four in 

 width, the lake being near the Patkai end where broadest, and being itself, 

 say, three-fourths by half a mile. Apparently the lake once filled the entire 

 valley, the junction of the level with the hills all around being a well 

 marked line ; the surface also mainly consists of grass and scrub jungle, and 

 showing very few trees, is apparently all swamp. The three small conical 

 and wooded hills east of the lake, and at, say, one-fourth to half a mile 

 distant from it, look precisely like islands, the exit from the lake passes 

 close to them. 



Later in the day I attempted to get along the crest eastwards, but it 

 was an interminable succession of gullies or saddles and ridges, which would 

 need a whole day to explore, and the dense forest precluded a view in any 

 direction. At a mile east a peak rises which dominates all around and 

 beyond. While we were camped on the summit a party of Singphus 

 crossed from Assam en route to Hukong for buffaloes. Starting from the 

 Nambong that morning about 9 A. M., they intended making the Nongyang 

 ford ere dusk, thus crossing from water to water in one inarch. Three or 

 four of them had guns. 



Early on the 14th we struck the tents, and started back down the 

 northern slope, seeing the tracks of cattle which had crossed since we did. 

 In about three hours we reached the Nunki, where we had breakfast. I 

 here caught some orange coloured butterflies which seemed new to me, and 



