98 Memorandum of an Excursion to the Tea Hills. [Feb. 



Hwuy Taou, we proceeded in a N. N. E. direction at a moderate pace 

 for an hour and a half, when we stopped at a temple, and refreshed 

 ourselves with tea. Nothing could be more kind or more civil than 

 the manners of the poeple towards us hitherto, and if we could have 

 procured conveyance here so as to have escaped walking in the heat 

 of the day loaded as we were with heavy woollen clothes, we should 

 have had nothing farther to desire ; as it was, my feet began already 

 to feel uncomfortable from swelling, and after another hour's marching, 

 I was obliged to propose a halt till the cool of the evening. Fortu- 

 nately we found, however, that chairs were procurable at the place, and 

 we accordingly engaged them at half dollar each. These were formed in 

 the slightest manner, and carried on bambu poles, having a cross bar at 

 the extremities, which rested on the back of the bearer's neck, apparent- 

 ly a most insecure as well as inconvenient position ; but, as the poles 

 were at the same time grasped by the hands, the danger of a false step 

 was lessened. "We had not advanced above a mile and a half before the 

 bearers declared they must eat, and to enable them to do so, they 

 must get more money. With this impudent demand we thought it 

 best to comply, giving them an additional real each. After an hour's 

 further progress we were set down at a town near the foot of the 

 first pass which we had to cross. There the bearers clamourously 

 insisted on an additional payment before they would carry us any 

 further. This we resisted, and by Mr. Gutzlapp's eloquence gained 

 the whole of the villagers who crowded round us, to join in exclaim, 

 ing against the attempted extortion. Seeing this the rogues sub- 

 mitted and again took us up. Mr. G. mentioned that while we were 

 passing through another village, the people of which begged the 

 bearers to set us down that they might have a look at us, they 

 demanded 100 cash as the condition of compliance. The country 

 through which we passed swarmed with inhabitants, and exhibited 

 the highest degree of cultivation, though it was only in a few spots 

 that we saw any soil which would be deemed in Bengal tolerably 

 good; rice, the sweet potatoes, and sugar-cane were the principal articles 

 of culture. We had now to ascend a barren and rugged mountain, 

 which seemed destined by nature to set the hand of man at defiance ; 

 yet, even here there was not a spot where a vegetable would take 

 root, that was not occupied by at least a dwarf pine, planted for the 

 purpose of yielding fire-wood, and a kind of turpentine; and wherever 

 a nook presented an opportunity of gaining a few square yards of level 

 ground by terracing, no labour seems to have been spared to redeem 

 such spots for the purpose of rice cultivation. In ascending the pass 

 we soon came to places where it was difficult for our bearers to find a 



