4-20 MEMOIR OF A SURVEY OF 



their way through it was to hunt for the notches left on the trees by them- 

 selves last, and by occasional travellers of old before them. Our coolies 

 had each of them to carry twelve seers of rice for their own use, besides 

 their shallow cooking pot and clothing : what they could carry in addition 

 for us, was a mere trifle each man. The elephant was sent back as no 

 longer useful. The perambulator had been left at the Daplia with the 

 Barman who wheeled it, who had already fallen ill. I had offered in 

 vain a handsome reward to any one who would undertake to convey it on, 

 and afterwards found that it could not possibly have been used. 



The next march was entirely along the banks of the Diking, the 

 plains terminating a short distance beyond the village, where a boat con- 

 veyed the party across to the north bank. In the plains, the river is 

 occasionally fordable, but never so up here. We kept upon the edge, 

 making very slow progress over large blocks of rolled rock. Lieutenant 

 Burlton discovered a sycamore tree amongst the jungle, and we observed 

 thin strata of coal alternating with blue clay in the sandstone rock. 

 About half way to our journey's end, we encountered every now and then 

 a perpendicular cliff, which we were obliged to clamber over with much loss 

 of time. The rapids here frequently deserve the name of cataract. 



We halted on a small stone bed. The thermometer stood low for that 

 season of the year, (3d May) much lower than at Sadiya at the same time. 

 At sunrise it was sixty-two and a half, and seventy-four and a half 

 at five in the evening, when the state of the barometer was noted. 

 We were then one thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine feet above the 

 level of the sea, and two hundred and thirty-six feet above Kumku. 



A midge, called Dam Dum, common to the hills, began now to trou- 

 ble us. It flies on a noiseless wing, and has no hum like the muskito to 

 announce its treacherous attack, neither is the bite immediately felt, 



