70 C. 11. Lepi^er— r//d Singplio and Kampti Country. [Marck, 



travellers in Burmah Ka Kyungs, &c., &c.) Tliis clan is also called Dapha, 

 from its having originally been located on the Dapha pani, a tributary of 

 tlie Debing a tributary again of the Brahmaputra within our frontier. Ga 

 Kieng signifies red, and they are supposed to have got this name from tlie 

 red colour of the soil near the Dapha : probably the red sandstone rocks 

 about there gave the name. 



This clan is of course again divided into a lot of families and villages. 

 The Kaku Division again claims several large clans such as the Laphais, 

 Latangs or Lissous and »» Kumsangs, &c. The Kaku division is found 

 chiefly in the trans Nam Kin country and the Ts'San division on this side 

 of the Nam Kin, in the Hokong valley, and between the Irrawaddi and 

 the Kandywen. A propos of the Lissous, although they actually pay tribute 

 to China, i. e., those of them immediately adjacent to China, they are not 

 allowed at Pekin to be in existence, nor their name to appear on the 

 Chinese maps, but this is an interesting detail which it would take too long 

 to relate here. 



The Singphos pay tribute to nobody, neither to Burmah nor to China, 

 thus forming a neutral ground between us and China. All these tracts, espe- 

 cially towards the south and south-west and those in the further west of 

 our frontier station Sadiya, are extremely rich in the precious metals, and 

 the amber mines of Hokong, only a few days' journey from our frontier, 

 are famous. Serpentine, jade, salt and other valuable minerals, as well as 

 precious stones, are found in these tracts in no insignificant quantities. 

 The Chinese come a long way towards us, in the country just below the 

 junction of the Nam Kin and the Irrawaddi " proper," i. e., on the neutral 

 ground referred to, for trading purposes, and there used to be large settle- 

 ments of them even on this side of the Irrawaddi. This seems to point 

 very distinctly to the easy opening of trade communications with China 

 on this neutral ground, seeing that the Singphos would welcome us gladly 

 if properly treated in the first instance. 



As regards our actual distance from the Chinese frontier, if we put 

 the extreme point of our further line at about 70 miles east of Sadiya, 

 then we cannot be more tlian 80 miles from the limit where Chinese in- 

 fluence commences or their " outer line" must be, which latter follows the 

 range of mountains on the right bank of the Saluen or Loutze Kiang 

 (river of the Loutzes). This 80 miles contains more of interest in itself 

 than is easily explained in a short paper of this nature, but time and space 

 do not allow me to deal, but in a most general way, with a subject that 

 might fill volumes before being exhausted. 



General Walkek remarked that, in the absence of actual survey opera- 

 tions, geographers had much reason to be indebted to gentlemen — as Mr. 

 Lepper, and our friend A, D. to whom we are already indebted for previous 



