1881.] Nongyancj Lake, on the Burmese Frontier. 25 



of bills, — a feature visible bere alone, as elsewhere the range of Patkai 

 hid them from view. 



The hills seen beyond were expressively called the " Loglai Patkai" 

 by the Naga headman, who caught me making an outline and taking bear- 

 ings. They may be the group that lie between the Loglai and Turong 

 rivers. From this point west, the entire line of the Patkai crest was visible, 

 but slightly undulating till near Maium, where there seemed to be several 

 depressions, before the rise to the 6,939 feet of that peak. The seven 

 large spurs, running north and more or less at right angles, were very 

 distinctly seen with their intervening valleys, all, like the main range, 

 densely wooded, the Nambong draining all that was lying in this direction. 

 Some of the more western spurs of Patkai were sufficiently high, and form 

 the sky-line, as Longvoi Pipoi, and Nongya Sapon, projecting into the 

 Namtsik valley, which lay west, and seemed filled with low rolling hills, 

 one behind the other, for a long way. Towards the north-west at some 

 miles off, and seen more or less on end, were the ranges dividing the Namtsik 

 from the Tirap basins, some peaks, as ' Mung phra,' Kongtam, Kangatu, 

 and Yungbhi, were from 2,500 to 4,000 feet high ; further west again 

 about Makum, the hills gradually sank to the level of the plains, in a sea 

 of forest. I observed that the mists in the early part of the morning, or 

 before noon, poured for hours over the lowest part of Patkai above indi- 

 cated, like milk from a jug, and the phenomenon was repeated daily 

 during our stay, thus marking it unmistakeably as the lowest part of the 

 range. East of this part (which seemed the Upper Namrup on our side 

 and Loglai on the other) the range rose again, though not to any great 

 height. Between Patkai and Dupha Bum, beyond Dihing, rose a fine 

 group of hills called by these people Miao Bum, and between Miao and 

 Sonkap, on which we stood, were the small hills called Nan-nan and 

 Tantuk, between which Pemberton says the old route lay and the Namrup 

 flowed, under the name of the Nam-huk or Namhok, and near the village 

 of Namphuk ; the alternative route to the Niinki, via Nambongmiik, 

 passed hence also, it was taken by Mr. H. L. Jenkins and my brother some 

 years ago, in 1869. 



Towards the afternoon we descended through a clearing, where we saw 

 boys lopping the tree branches that overhung a gully, seemingly a very 

 perilous job and needing some nerve, as the branches fell quite 500 feet. 

 In the evening, an old Niga gave many particulars about the Nonyang 

 lake and valley, and the previous inhabitants, routes to Burma, &c. He 

 gave the length of the valley as one day's journey, and says he lived with 

 other Nagas once on the hills overlooking the western end of the lake, 

 where there are now no villages. The original inhabitants were, he 

 said, Khamjangs, Aitonias, and Turong Turai, confirming what I had 

 4 



