358 MEMOIR OF A SURVEY OF 



being handed to him, he dipped his head and arms under water, and cut 

 two large notches in its hinder part and made fast to it a green pliant 

 cane, with which it was easily pulled on shore ; but cased in a coat of mail 

 and armed with sharp teeth, at least half an inch long, the turtle was not 

 yet mastered, and advantage was taken of its attempts at self-defence to 

 secure its mouth by presenting a large bamboo, which it constantly 

 snapped at. A man sitting on it, next bored the paws, which being bound 

 on the back with cane, reduced the poor turtle to a helpless condition, 

 and he was put on board the boat. 



The early settlements of the Khamtis, when fifty or sixty years ago 

 they first crossed the mountainous barrier at the head of the Diking, 

 and procured the permission of the Asamese Raja to reside within his 

 territories, were here upon the Tenga Pdni ; but there now remains 

 no vestige of the former populous state of its banks : an uninterrupted 

 tree jungle continued as far as I could explore it. We passed the 

 JBereng, which is a narrow rivulet, branching off from the Karam: 

 the Marbar we also passed, on which are one or two small villages 

 of the Khamti Chiefs, who, having been concerned with the Singfos in a 

 plundering incursion, fled from Sadiya on the approach of our force, and 

 latterly, we found the river so much reduced in breadth, and so choaked 

 with fallen trees, that further progress, even in the smallest canoe, was 

 impracticable. 



Bearings on the survey peaks to the north afforded means, together 

 with latitudes, for correcting this survey, in which, from the nature of the 

 banks, no measurement could possibly be attempted. 



I have omitted in the proper order of time to notice Lieutenant Jones's 

 survey from Rangpur to Bisa, where the troops received orders to 



