1835.] Tea Plant in Upper Assam. 45 



6. If this recommendation were acted upon, the person deputed 

 should be in Cachar by the 1st of November, and proceed immediately 

 to ascend the mountains in communication with the officer in civil 

 charge, Captain Fisher, who would previously have made arrangements 

 for his being provided with porters, &c. He should pursue nearly the 

 tract followed by me on the same journey, and on arrival at Bishonath 

 should proceed by water to Sadiya, and thence go up to Beesa at the 

 foot of the mountains dividing Assam from Ava. 



7. As the individual thus deputed would of course be a competent 

 botanist, and perhaps geologist, I contemplate much indirect acquisi- 

 tion to science from the trip thus sketched out, it being almost entirely 

 untrodden ground to any scientific observer, and of course it is to be 

 expected that much benefit, in an economical point of view, might re- 

 sult to the state from the researches and suggestions of one who could 

 bring to knowledge the unlimited productions of the vegetable and 

 mineral kingdoms in the regions in question. 



8. In case you should not have forwarded a copy of your circular to 

 Captain Fisher, I shall do so, and request him to make a report to you 

 upon the subject of it with reference to Cachar. 



Extract of a private letter from Captain F. Jenkins to G. J. 

 Gordon, Esq. dated the 19th May, 1834, with enclosures. 

 Since I wrote you officially, I have had the enclosed note from Lieut. 

 Charlton of the Assam Light Infantry, regarding tea, and I have 

 been presented with the enclosed luminous map* of the tea districts in 

 Upper Assam by a Phokun who accompanied Lieut. Burnett in an ex- 

 pedition to the top of the Patkoye range of hills, dividing the waters of 

 the Burhamputra from those of the Kuenduen. On this range of hills 

 the trees grow in great abundance, and are described to reach the size 

 of small forest trees or very large shrubs. You will see how he says the 

 leaves are treated, which though it seems rather an odd mode of ma- 

 nufacture, he and others persist in saying is the way in which the 

 Singphos manage the tea. I never had an opportunity of trying it, 

 but those who had said it was palatable enough, and the leaves thus 

 prepared keep for ever. 



Copy of a letter from Lieut. Charlton to Captain Jenkins, dated on the 

 Burhamputra, the 17 th May, 1834, enclosed in the preceding. 

 With regard to the circular from the Tea Committee which you 

 showed me at Gowahatty, I have much pleasure in communicating the 

 little I know of the tea plant of Assam. I was informed about three 

 years ago of its being found growing wild in the vicinity of Beesa at 



* This map being of the most crude description is omitted here. It did not 

 accompany the Committee's Report to Government. 



