18 S. E. TeRi—JVofes of a trip tip tJie JDihing, [No. 1, 



sume our journey, by 2 o'clock we reached the mouth of the Namrup river, 

 up which on the last trip I travelled for Patkai and Nongyang. It was 

 now deep and sluggish at the mouth, while the M'ganto we now entered 

 was conspicuously shallow and rapid, the water being remarkably clear. In- 

 land all along on each side, was much the same jungle, as below, the same 

 tangle of rattans, creepers, tall grasses, and tora or wild cardamum, 15 

 feet high. The trees of the ordinary Asam mixed forest, Modar, Erithrina 

 Indiea, Simol, or cotton tree, Bomhax malabarium, Sahm, the wild jack 

 Artocarpus cJiaplasha, ajar, Lagerstrcemia Begina, figs unlimited, (except 

 Elastica) Acacias, Eugenia, Michelia &c., &c. The huge reed-grasses as 

 Nol, Kugra, &c., covered the edges and flats wherever possible. 



Snags were plentiful all along but in the M'ganto remarkable for 

 their numbers and size. At one place where there was a channel of 

 deep water spanned by a huge stem, we all used it as a bridge, and 

 the men said a canoe of 150 maunds could be made out of it. The large 

 and straight stems I met with here and there fit for canoes struck me 

 forcibly. 



The regulation taxing all timber of certain kinds found in the river 

 beds, might well in these wild places up-stream be suspended, the more so 

 as in this same river Dihing lower down as much as Ks. 2,000 has this 

 year been actually given by Government to remove by employed labour 

 the snags and trees so dangerous to navigation. 



Probably the regulation taxing the drift timber was instituted to meet 

 cases where men might otherwise fell and float off timber growing near 

 the banks, but apart from the fact that this of itself would be doing a 

 service rather than the reverse, it might be borne in mind that the total 

 harm these people could do as at present organized, could not possibly 

 equal even 1 per cent, of the loss constantly going on through ordinary 

 natural decay and storms. 



Our camp was pitched at the tail of a small island four or five bends up 

 the M'ganto suti, on sand close to a rapid and while some pitched the tents, 

 others took the canoe as usual and got in a lot of large and small dry logs 

 and branches, for camp fires and cooking. The tents and the guides' bivou- 

 ac of leaves, generally formed a cross with a roaring fire in the centre, 

 and small ones outside. With large fires no one would mind much the 

 visit of either tiger or elephant. The wild solitary male buffalo was the 

 only one we desired to keep clear of, as they frequently charge madlj^ at 

 anything that is strange, and disregard firebrands. Our three tents would 

 certainly have been unbearable, luckily the only wild buffalo we came across 

 were in herds or females. 



After an early dinner I issued some " tea" and we had quite a jolly 

 party round the fire, I usually lay at full length on my bedding and listen- 



