1855.] Notes on Northern Cachar. 587 



It must be understood that all the roads mentioned by me, are 

 mere foot-paths cleared through the jungle, and perfectly impassable 

 to all but foot-passengers. It would be impossible for even a hill 

 pony to go along many of them, and no one could venture to ride 

 for more than a mile or two at a stretch on favorable ground, on 

 any one of them. The best method of proceeding, therefore, is by 

 those means with which nature has supplied us ; and, difficult and 

 irksome as walking in such country is, it will be found preferable to 

 the only other means of locomotion that exists, and to which those 

 incapable of being on their legs for six hours a day, are obliged to 

 resort. Palanquins and tonjons are out of the question. Indepen- 

 dently of their being no bearers to carry them, it would be im- 

 possible to convey them round the sharp corners of the paths as 

 they pass between rocks and trees, and still more so, along the 

 faces of precipices, where there is only footing for a single indivi- 

 dual at a time. If it is necessary to be carried, a slight litter of 

 bamboos is constructed, in which there is space for a person to 

 sit tailor-fashion, and in this position and no other he is obliged 

 to sit during a six hours' daily journey, while twelve or sixteen 

 coolies support and carry him along, at the rate of about two miles 

 an hour. 



In marching in the hills, by such foot-paths, six hours a day 

 including one hour's halt, must be devoted to the road, as the pace 

 can never exceed three miles an hour, and seldom even come up 

 to it. A start after breakfast, at about 8 or 9 o'clock, brings 

 you up to your ground, removed about ten or fifteen miles from 

 the last encamping place, at 3 or 4 in the afternoon. The coolies 

 who accompany you on the march, are then set about to erect a 

 temporary hut, which they do in an incredibly short time, and in 

 the course of two hours you are lodged in a tenement impervious 

 to sun and rain. 



The general appearance of N. Cachar when looked down upon 

 from one of the higher ranges, is that of a number of low worm- 

 like hills most intricately intertwined, and covered with dense 

 bamboo jungle which lies here and there felled in large and small 

 patches, on which cultivation is carried on. 



Viewed from a distance, the height of the bamboos being uniform, 



