452 MEMOIR OF A SURVEY OF 



of the rhododendron, as some shelter from the penetrating mists. The cold, 

 and novelty of their situation, deprived our people of all energy, and with 

 our best exertions of encouragement and threats, we, with difficulty, got a fire 

 lighted. One of our good-natured and willing guides agreed in the morning 

 to go back, lest the traces left should prove insufficient to direct those in the 

 rear, who were yet more numerous than those arrived. One poor fellow was 

 found to have passed the night alone, on the very top — and for the remain- 

 der, the precautionary measure of sending back guides seemed to have been 

 fortunate, for they were discovered wandering about the spot where our 

 devious tracks showed that we ourselves had missed the road. At one 

 o'clock there remained in the rear only four men, who were so much 

 fatigued, that there was no chance of their conquering the mountain that 

 day, or of their keeping up with us if they had ; and, since the Luri 

 Gohain was behind us, having halted another day at Ndinbak, we consi- 

 dered that there was nothing to apprehend in leaving them to follow at 

 their convenience. The whole day was excessively cold and unpleasant, 

 the heavy mists and drifting rain continuing without intermission. We 

 would have removed to better quarters, but were informed that no such 

 were within some hours' march. 



Leaving the Phungan on the morrow, we mounted the wall on its 

 right bank, and there, while descending the ridge which divides the waters 

 of the Iraivadi from those of the Brahmaputra, a transient clearness gave 

 us a view of our old halting place on the Dapha, M r hich we could not per- 

 ceive without great delight. A short march brought us back into our old 

 path at the crest of the Phungan pass ; it ought not to have been fatiguing, 

 as it was generally on the descent, but it became so from the kind of 

 jungle we had to make our way through, or over — for often the boughs of 

 the rhododendron were so closely interwoven, that we stepped from one to 

 another, four and five feet elevated above the ground. 



