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BRA MA KOOND. 



Gam himself, with a train of followers. This man assumes the 

 sovereignty of the Koond. We encamped immediately under the 

 Faqueer's Rock, which is known to the Mishmees by the name " Tai- 

 hloo Maplampoo." The south bank is wooded to its brink, but not very 

 densely : it is excessively steep, and in many places almost perpendi- 

 cular. The strata composing it is partly limestone, lying at an angle of 

 45°, and in many places at a greater one. The scenery is picturesque 

 and bold : on either side of the river are hills rising abruptly to the 

 height of a few hundred feet, but the hills are continued longer on the 

 north side. From the Rock the river seems to run W.N.W. for a 

 quarter of a mile, and then bends to the S.W. The breadth of the bed 

 is a good hundred yards, but the stream at this season is confined 

 to the fifty yards near the south bank, the remainder being occupied 

 by rocks in situ, or boulders and sand : the edge of the N. bank is 

 occupied by stunted Saccharum. The appearance of the water is 

 characteristic, of a greyish green tinge, giving the impression of 

 great depth. It is only here and there that it is white with foam, 

 its general course being rather gentle. It is in various places en- 

 croached upon more or less by the rocks forming its bed, some of 

 which are quite perpendicular. A little to the west of the Faqueer's 

 Rock there is an immense mass of rock in the bed of the river, between 

 which and the south bank there is now very little water and no current. 

 The rocks are generally naked ; here and there they are partially 

 clothed with Gramineae, and a Cyperaceous-looking plant, something 

 like an Eriophorum. The river, a short distance beyond the Deo-panee, 

 takes a bend to the north; at the point where it bends there is a 

 considerable rapid. 



The Faqueer's Rock itself is a loose mass of rugged outline, about 

 50 feet high : access to its summit is difficult to any body but a 

 Mishmee ; it is, however, by no means impracticable. The path by 

 which it may be gained, leads from the eastward. At the summit is an 

 insulated, rounded, rugged mass of rock, on which the faqueers sit. It 

 is however the descent by the path to the east which is difficult, and 

 people generally choose another path to the west. This rock is cloth- 

 ed with ferns epiphytical Orchidese, an Arundo, and a few stunt- 

 ed trees are very common at its summit. Between it and the hill is 

 another much smaller mass, and the intervening spaces are occupied 

 by angular masses of rock. These spaces both lead westward to 

 that corner of the river into which the Deo-panee falls. Eastward 

 they lead to the margin of the bank. 



