308 KHASIA MOUNTAINS. Chap. XXX. 



The roof was supported by tressels of great thickness, and 

 like the rest of the woodwork, was morticed, no nails 

 being used throughout the building. The floor was of 

 split bamboos laid side by side. 



We ascended the Boga-panee in canoes, each formed of 

 a hollowed trunk fifty feet long and four broad ; we could 

 not, however, proceed far, on account of the rapids. The 

 rocks in its bed are limestone, but a great bluff cliff of 

 sandy conglomerate (strike east-south-east and dip south- 

 south-west 70°), several hundred feet high, rises on the east 

 bank close above the village, above which occurs amyg- 

 daloidal basalt. The pebbles in the river (which was 

 seventy yards broad, and turbid) were of slate, basalt, 

 sandstone, and syenite : on the opposite bank were sand- 

 stones over-lain by limestone, both dipping to the south- 

 ward. 



Beautiful palms, especially Caryota urens (by far the 

 handsomest in India), and groves of betel-nut bordered 

 the river, with oranges, lemons, and citrons ; intermixed 

 with feathery bamboos, horizontally -branched acacias, oaks, 

 with pale red young leaves, and deep green foliaged figs. 

 Prickly rattans and Plectocomia climbed amongst these, 

 their enormous plumes of foliage upborne by the matted 

 branches of the trees, and their arrowy tops shooting high 

 above the forest. 



After staying three days at Chela, we descended the 

 stream in canoes, shooting over pebbly rapids, and amongst 

 rocks of limestone, water-worn into fantastic shapes, till we 

 at last found ourselves gliding gently along the still canals 

 of the Jheels. Many of these rapids are so far artificial, 

 that they are enclosed by gravel banks, six feet high, 

 which, by confining the waters, give them depth ; but, 

 Chela being hardly above the level of the sea, their fall is 



