40 S. E. Peal — Notes of a trip up the DiJiing. [No. 1, 



entire Mbong yang plateau seemed covered by Hingori (castenopsis) and 

 this was the great feature also of the plateau on the western flank of the 

 Dapha valley. Ere going down I asked Nden gam to point out any traces 

 he saw of human habitation, as it must have been once a carefully guarded 

 point, in the old and unruly days of the Dapha Gam. Our troops indeed 

 had to fight their way by this same gut. On looking about he at once 

 pointed out, first a small circular burial mound and ditch twenty yards 

 south-east of the entrance of path ; secondly, a good many large trees called 

 Modar, Erytlirina Indica, planted to train pan on, these and the planted 

 Wra bambii indicated a village site. 



I also measured the height of cliff approximately by dropping heavy 

 green sticks and hard lumps of clay, also stone, and counting the pulsations 

 ere they reached the bottom, or talus, the average being six beats. 



Before starting down I left my mark, in the shape of two bullets fired 

 into a morhal, Vatica lancifolia or copal varnish tree, close to the mouth 

 of pass on the south at four feet from ground. 



The animals that frequent this plateau, and pass up or down, I had 

 one means of ascertaining at this pass or gully, and carefully watched and 

 recorded all tracks as we went down, meeting elephant, buffalo, sambur, 

 horina, and huguri, deer, tiger, monkey, pig, cats, and what seemed wild 

 dog. But no bear. Some way on, the path forks, becoming tolerably easy, 

 and near the bottom we came to a coal seam, and shales, bedded at high 

 angles. The upper part of the cliff was composed of clay, with water-worn 

 stones and boulders embedded. From the edge we had a fine view of, and 

 across the valley below, where we could see the Dapha Pani all along as a 

 series of foaming rapids, and even hear it if we stood still ; away on the 

 other side of it the bottom of the valley was like a plain of grass, with 

 scattered trees. It had been set on fire by the Mishmis, and was burning 

 in large patches. On the other parts left black and smoking, we now and 

 then caught sight of the men of our own party as little pigmies, moving 

 along in Indian file to the new camp. 



Looking across the valley to the western plateau, and realizing that 

 the little stream below had slowly eroded it, one had an impressive lesson 

 in geological time. The sun was now getting towards the West, and 

 warned us to start on, for where the camp was, we as yet did not know. 



On reaching the bottom, the river was close, and we forded it, also two 

 other branches further, all swift but none deep. Nden gam, though a re- 

 markably fine and strong young fellow, was a great opium-smoker, and he 

 at once went ahead for the Mishmi hut, we had before seen, to get a light, 

 and bamboo tube. Lutak and I followed at our leisure, and at one place 

 passed the body of a python, seventeen feet long, that had been caught 

 by the fire among the grass and burnt to death. Soon after, we heard a 



