1850.] Aborigines of the North East Frontier. 309 



sandy, or rocky shores, wherever indeed the locality is unfavorable for 

 the collection of mud and the growth of vegetables, we can have no 

 direct proof of depression. 



If, as I have shown, we have the old sea margin of nearly uniform 

 character, aspect, and elevation, presenting itself every where, it is not 

 surely too great a stretch of inference to conclude that the depression 

 was, like the upheaval, not local but general, and that they everywhere 

 accompanied each other. 



This theory of double movement completely solves all the mysteries 

 attendant on the formation of coral reefs — the general descent permitted 

 beds of coral of very great thickness to be formed, the ascent brought 

 the whole again to the surface, or above it. 



This paper was prepared for the Edinburgh meeting of the British 

 Association. Just after its despatch by the Mail of the 26th July, I 

 found that the meeting of the Association would be long over before it 

 could arrive, and so sent a copy to the Asiatic Society of Bengal. It is ne- 

 cessary to state this and explain the multitude of allusions contained in 

 it to the geology of the East Coast of Scotland — a locality but little 

 known, in all likelihood, to the bulk of the members of the Society. 



Aborigines of the North East Frontier. 



To The Secretary of the Asiatic Society. 



Darjiling, Sept. 1 6th, 1850. 



Sir, — I have the honour to enclose another series of Vocabularies 

 obtained for me, by the Rev. N. Brown of Sibsagor, in furtherance of 

 my plan of exhibiting to the Society, a sample of the lingual affinities 

 of all the Aborigines of India, on an uniform plan. The present series 

 comprises four dialects of the Naga tongue, — the Chutia, the Ahdm, 

 the Khamti, the Laos, — and the Siamese. My valuable correspon- 

 dent Mr. Brown has favoured me with the following remarks, on the 

 present occasion. 



''The first four columns of the table complete the variations, priorly 

 given, of the strangely corrupted Naga language. This tongue affords 

 an extraordinary exemplification of the manner in which an unwritten 

 language may be broken up even upon a small extent of territory. On 



2 s 



