ASAM AND THE NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES. 419 



eight houses. There is excellent ground for rice cultivation on the per- 

 fect flats of the steppes, and for grain requiring a drier soil, they have clear- 

 ed a part of the hill where the slope is full thirty degrees. A very good 

 observation gave the latitude of Pasila twenty-seven degrees. 



We continued our march the next day, proceeding over the hill east- 

 ward, with the Diking on our right. We descended in the same direction 

 and came again upon the banks of that river, where the little Inke falls in. 

 Here, on the north bank, a narrow strip of plain stretches along under the 

 low hills to Lujong village. We halted a while to beg for a supply 

 of rice, which was given, and then entered the jungle where the 

 river winds at the bottom of contiguous hills, and does not admit 

 of passage along its edge. Opposite to the PhoJcong rivulet, we found 

 a perpendicular cliff of sandstone, and were obliged to- cross on rafts of 

 bamboo. On the south bank we passed Imbong Kusar, situated in the 

 midst of a tine little cultivated plain, and proceeded to Tumong Tikrang, 

 where a miserable hut was pointed out for us remote from the village. 



We found that a certain degree of enmity existing between the 

 Khamtis and Singfos, made the latter a little shy, but having made good 

 our entrance into the Gam's house, we experienced afterwards a very 

 kind reception and much attention. He promised a sufficient supply of 

 rice to enable us to go on, and he fulfilled his promise the next morning, 

 most handsomely giving us a small surplus, and men to carry it two stages. 



We were now to take leave of the inhabited district, and enter a wild 

 region, where no paths exist, but those made by the constant passage 

 through the jungles, of elephants, rhinoceroses, and buffalos. 



For the last two years none had traversed the wilderness, excepting 

 the two Mishmis, who were now our guides, and their only means of finding 



