TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS. 79 



of the Irawadi is even now (1891) very important, as the esta- 

 blishment of a direct means of communication between the two 

 countries will be a great administrative and commercial gain, and 

 help towards opening up this part of Upper Burma. No. 6 survey- 

 party, consisting of Colonel Woodthorpe, Mr. Ogle, and Mr. Ewing, 

 with an escort of the 44th Gurkha Light Infantry, and some 

 Frontier Police under the command of Major C. E. Macgregor, 

 explored this tract in 1884-85, ascending the Noa Dihing river 

 from Sudiya, and crossed the Chankau pass (8,400 feet) over the 

 dividing range. From an adjoining mountain, Mokoshat, the 

 Brahmaputra and Irawadi rivers can both be descried on a clear 

 day. The inhabitants of this part of the Upper Irawadi are 

 Kamtis or Shans, and Buddhists by religion ; Major Macgregor 

 believes them to be of Siamese stock. The reception they gave the 

 English was friendly, and they appeared to be particularly honest. 

 The furthest points reached by the surveyors were Langdao and 

 Padao (the capital) on the M'Li-kha river (one of the affluents 

 of the Irawadi), a little south of Lieutenant Wilcox's furthest, 

 after which the party returned and crossed the mountains at an 

 altitude of 5,500 feet into the head waters of the Kyendwen, 

 re-crossing eventually by the Patkoi pass (2,860 feet) into Assam.* 



Part of the region to the south-west, intermediate between the 

 Naga hills and the Hukong valley, was explored in 1888 by an 

 expedition under Mr. J. F. Needham, Assistant Political Officer at 

 Sadiya, Mr. Ogle being again attached thereto as surveyor. The 

 starting point was Margherita, the terminus of the Assam Eailway, 

 which was left on the 4th January, and to which the expedition 

 returned on the 28th February, having failed to reach their objective 

 point in the Hukong valley owing to difficulties in obtaining 

 carriage, the lateness of the season, and other causes, but having 

 demonstrated the practicability of reaching the Hukong valley by 

 two routes, viz., 1st, by the Nongyong lake, and 2nd, by the Naga 

 hills route, which goes through the mountains south of Margherita. 

 The pass over the Patkoi on the outward journey was found to be 

 4,147 feet, while that on the return was 7,192 feet above sea-level. 

 About 1,500 square miles of entirely new country lying south of 

 the Patkoi range (up to which the surveys of 1873-74 had been 

 carried) was surveyed by Mr. Ogle, who has established a reputation 



* See also Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society for 1885, pp. 541 and 751. 



