46 S. E. Peal— iVb/^5 of a trip up the Dihing. [No. I, 



Some way on I detected a peculiar smell in the jungles, and on enquiry 

 was told we were close to a Pung, and ere long descended into a deep 

 triangular depression with swampy bottom, on sand. The water, of a pale 

 bluish colour (as if diluted with shale mud) rose in an irregular jet about 

 6'' and 8" high in a little pool and passed off as a stream. It had a pecu- 

 liar saline taste, I took a sample, but later on lost it, the Singphus look on 

 this water as a cure for goitre. 



About fifty galls per minute rose. The place has been used as an 

 elephant trap, a skull and bones lay there of one shot some time before. 

 The Muttok Gosain now and then shikars here I believe. The Hingori 

 seeds were all day a perfect nuisance, first one then another got the thorns 

 in their feet, and I now ascertained why the Singphus took us round by 

 the gorge. It was to avoid them. There are thus three quite distinct 

 routes for passing Nchong Bum. one by the gorge which we took, and 

 which is very nearly what Wilcox calls " impossible," another straight over 

 the hill at once, very steep and fatiguing, so all say ; and the other which 

 "Wilcox went by, and we were now on, tolerably level and easy, (bar the 

 thorns). The men all tried sandels of wood and bark, but they tripped 

 and caught so often, that one pair after another, were blessed and flung 

 away, and they hobbled along here and there, like a row of cripples in pre- 

 ference. Eventually " Uren nong" lost his way, and I called a halt for 

 half an hour, as the wandering about was only wearisome. On his finding 

 it we soon after came to the Dungan kha, and as Wilcox says, it is "' one 

 continued rapid." And we emerged from it, at last ! opposite the mouth 

 of the gorge where we were all so nearly blown away. Not wishing to chance 

 a repetition of the gale we went on and camped in a cosy corner under a 

 big bluff that projected into the river, and where we found already, two 

 log huts and piles of firewood, we were here very nearly at the end of our 

 rations, and had only one good meal all round left, so they had half now, 

 and kept the rest for the morning. During the night the wind rose and 

 though no rain fell, we should have again fared badly if it had not been 

 for the shelter of the corner we were in. They say that this is always a 

 ■windy site, and the name is " Dungan yup." 



Very early in the morning I made three of the Singphus start off at 

 once for Bishi for rice and to return and meet us, they went very much 

 against the grain, but there was no help for it, we then started at about 

 9 A. M. the load men by a detour, to avoid the steep rock, up which the 

 Kamti and I climbed, with difficulty, as it in places overhung. As we 

 started, a large party of men and seven women, appeared on the off-bank, 

 from Khomong having come via the gorge, Lutak and I soon after cross- 

 ing the bluff, met them as they emerged from the bad ford, where all the 

 women joined hands, (held up) as they crossed, in a line up-stream, a very 

 sensible plan. 



