1869.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 71 



They had travelled up the bed of the Sooroong and then up th» 

 Loglai. The devious course of these streams, and the difficulty 

 of wading over shingle and boulders, must account for the slow progress 

 made. 



The villages on the Sooroong, they informed me, did not number 

 more than fifteen houses and that very little rice would be procurable. 

 From their villages to the Denai is a two days' march through 

 forest. They described the country on each bank of the Denai as well 

 cultivated and thickly populated. From the Patkoi to the Denai, the 

 path did not lie over any steep hills. 



The Singfoos who accompanied me, had only agreed to take me as 

 far as Nonyang, and I failed to induce them to go further south 

 with me. It was their busiest time of the year. The only crop they 

 grow was being reaped, and they could not afford to lose any more 

 time in securing it. 



It will be seen that the only difficulties to be encountered on the 

 road between Assam and Hookoong are caused by the denseness of 

 the jungle. The intervening country is a wilderness consisting of 

 a forest of many useful timber trees of immense size. Below the 

 larger trees is a tangled mass of smaller plants, most of them climbers 

 twisting about the larger trees and wrestling with each other in an 

 intense struggle for life. The only paths by which man can move 

 are the natural beds of rivers or mountain streams. It would be- 

 impossible to leave these channels, except for the tracks made in the 

 jungle by herds of wild elephants. Progress along such paths is very 

 slow, and the distance to be travelled very much increased, owing to 

 the necessity of often following the windings of the streams. 



The Burmese government in former days took care that there 

 should be a village, or rather a military settlement, every twelve or 

 fifteen miles along the route, and it was the business of the people, 

 living at these stations, to cut the jungle occasionally, and to remove 

 fallen trees and other obstructions from the path. The route has now 

 fallen almost entirely into disuse on account of the posts having been 

 one by one deserted since August last. Only three trading parties 

 have come this way from Hookoong into Assam. Traders now 

 usually travel by a more circuitous and very difficult path through 

 the Naga hills, passing from one Naga village to another, so as to 



