70 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Feb 



The Singfoos gathered the leaves and commenced to prepare tea after 

 their own fashion. They told me that tea was to be found in the jungle 

 near any spot where there had formerly been a Shan or Singfoo 

 settlement. 



As far as I could see, there is a depression in the Patkoi range at 

 this point, and it is to be supposed that the Burmese would not have 

 selected this for their main route to Assam, unless it had possessed 

 considerable advantages over every other path. 



The present path rises probably from 2,500 to 3,000 feet, but to 

 cross the range with a road, it would certainly not be necessary to 

 rise more than 2,000 feet. 



On the Assam side I could see little but the tops of the hills below 

 me, on account of a heavy fog, but southward the air was clear and 

 I had a very fine view of the country. The most striking object on 

 the Burma side is a large open plain dotted with a few trees, some 

 eighteen or twenty miles long by seven or eight broad. At the 

 western end of this plain, and almost immediately beneath the Patkoi 

 is an open sheet of water, perhaps three miles long and exceeding 

 a mile in breadth called Nonyang* by the Singfoos. The lake 

 stretches nearly from east to west. It contains a triangular shaped 

 island near its south-east extremity where its waters are drained off 

 by a small stream called Loglai which running southwards falls into 

 the Sooroong, and this latter river falls into the Denai or Kyund- 

 ween of the maps. The Kyundween, it is well known, falls into the 

 Irrawady, or Milee, as the Singfoos call the great river below Ava. 



After examining the lake and satisfying myself that its waters did 

 run southwards through the Loglai, I returned to the top of the, 

 Patkoi and encamped there. I was anxious if possible to get a view 

 of the Assam side, so as to gain some idea of the best line of road to' 

 Makoom. 



The nearest of the Hookoong villages are on the banks of the 

 Sooroong, lying under a hill called Gadak which was pointed out to 

 me and which appeared to be about twenty-five miles south of 

 Nonyang, as the crow flies. In the evening two Singfoos came into 

 our camp from these Sooroong villages, and I learnt with surprise that 

 they had slept two nights on the road since they left their homes. 



* Non, a lake ; yang, the name of a Shan chief, who held this post for the 

 Burmese. 



