ASAM AND THE NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES. 423 



had that day one fowl left, on which to display our talents, which were 

 ever after degradingly employed, in merely boiling our pot of rice. The 

 people were much fatigued, and arrived late, and it was with difficulty 

 that we got a miserable hut built to shelter us from the rain, which 

 continued all the evening. The thermometer stood at sixty-five, at 

 five o'clock, and the barometer informed us that in addition to the 

 height of our last halting place, above the Molia, we had climbed up 

 three thousand eight hundred and forty-nine feet, and were eight thousand 

 four hundred and twenty-nine feet above the level of the sea. 



At day light on the 6th, the thermometer was at forty-six. The 

 water of the " Diamond" had been fairly expended the night before, and 

 I had placed a sentry to secure a proper distribution in the morning, but 

 it was nearly empty, and what little had collected was too dirty to use, 

 we therefore marched before breakfast, contrary to our usual custom. 

 After climbing one more peak still higher, we did at last perceive the 

 summit of Wangleo Bkfim, but as it is a large cone, the path led round it 

 as less laborious than clambering over, and after two hours march we 

 found a small rill of water, trickling down one of its ravines, which barely 

 sufficed for our morning's meal. We noticed a new description of bamboo, 

 a little below the summit on the north face of the mountain ; not growing, 

 as usual, in clumps, but singly, and having a coronet of sharp thorns 

 round each joint. They follow the moss covered trees of stunted growth, 

 and prevail to a considerable distance on the descent, where heavy forests 

 and thick underwood again occur. 



It is now time to convey a better idea of our situation according to 

 the knowledge we had then acquired. We were then crossing that 

 ridge of mountains which separates the nearly parallel streams of the 

 Diking and Dapha, the commencement of which I have already men- 

 tioned as the conglomerate and sandstone cliffs of Pusila. The highest 



