416 MEMOIR OF A SURVEY OF 



Gams of the neighbouring villages said was all that could possibly be 

 collected. 



It now appeared that w r e were in an awkward dilemma, for the LtfRx 

 Gohain and his friends, who were to have been instrumental in 

 procuring supplies for us, now depended on me to be furnished with 

 a sufficiency for the journey. I offered triple payment, in kind, at Sadiya, 

 or a large price in money, but they seemed really unable to supply me, for 

 their poverty would have inclined them to accept my offer, though amongst 

 the Singfos, it would be considered barbarous inhospitality to suffer a 

 traveller to pay for his food. 



In the mean time the Dapha was beginning to rise, and we were 

 advised that it would soon become unfordable (as it actually did), but we 

 had dispatched a large party of the Khamtis to a distance to seek for rice, 

 and while uncertain of the result of their search, we could not venture to 

 cross. 



The barometer gave the altitude of Kumku, above the level of the 

 sea, one thousand five hundred and twenty-three feet, the fall of the river 

 between this and Kusan is, therefore, six hundred and eighty-three feet. 

 It rained again on the morrow, but the glad tidings having reached us that 



the Khamtis had met with unhoped-for success, we set out forthwith. 



The bed of the Dapha, from the base of the high group of mountains, 

 to the junction of the river with the Diking, has some very remarkable 

 features. It varies in width from half a mile at the mountains, to one and 

 a half mile where it terminates ; the bank of the valley, on the east side, is 

 a range of conglomerate hills rising in steppes, of which the lower one (of 

 sandstone), two or three hundred feet high, runs nearly straight and pa- 

 rallel with the river, with generally a perpendicular face. On the west 



