1856.] Report on the Magnetic Survey. 555 



I made arrangements, immediately after my arrival at Oodulgoorie, 

 with a former Rajah of Towang-Chang-To, who was found willing to 

 be my guide as far as Nurigoon, which is situated at about one-? 

 third of the breadth of the Himalayas. 



I staid four days at Nurigoon, and besides taking magnetic 

 observations, (the instruments had been, till used, carefully con- 

 cealed in cottou bags,) I succeeded in making an excursion to the 

 Zhighyla (Deer Mountains) in order to survey the different valleys 

 and make some drawings. 



Here too I got some very valuable information (not from the 

 inhabitants, but from traders coming down from Thibet) about the 

 routes to Lowany, only 4 marches distant, and to Lhassa. 



A very intelligent Bhootea from Tussisoodun even constructed 

 a map, with a vertical Section in the Chinese style, of the route 

 from Nurigoon* to Lhassa, which agreed very well with the verbal 

 information I received from the Thibetans. 



Nurigoon is situated on a rock on the left side of the Eiju at a 

 height of from 3,200 to 3,500 feet, and offers many interesting 

 features for comparison with the "Western Himalayas. 



The valleys here rise much more gradually than in the Western 

 parts of the Himalayas ; at the same time the height of the moun- 

 tains is less and the inclinations less steep. The vegetation has 

 the luxuriant character peculiar to the Eastern Himalayas, though 

 the quantity of rain is much less than in the lower ranges of the 

 Naga, Khosia and G-arrow Hills, on the left side of the valley of 

 the Brahmaputra. 



Yaks come down from Thibet as far as Nurigoon in the cold 

 season and chiefly towards the end of it, when the trade with the 

 plains is greatest ; and wild elephants are very frequent in the valley 

 of the Dhunsiri and the Eiju, and are occasionally met with even 

 a little above Nurigoon. Such coincidences of lower and upper 

 limits of animals, so different in reference to their zones of altitude, 

 may perhaps be not without interest in explaining the variety of 

 fossil remains in places which were formerly under similar local and 

 climatological conditions. 



* This Map is included in the drawings, portfolio the 6th, sent from Calcutta to 

 the Hon'ble the Court of Directors. 



4 c 2 



