46 



MISHMEE MOUNTAINS. 



observe that almost all plants with red flowers, at least in this 

 quarter, are acid : the Assamese always appear to expect this, the 

 proofs are Loranthus, Ceratostemma, and Begonia, in which red is 

 generally a predominant colour. 



Antrophyllum I noticed about Yen ; towards Yen, I diverged from 

 the path to visit the place whence the stones are procured, which the 

 Mishmees use as flints for striking lights : this stone is found on the 

 S. Western face of the mountain : the stones or noduli are frequently 

 sub- crystalline, and are imbedded in a sort of micaceous frangible rock : 

 they are very common, of very different sizes, with glassy fracture; 

 the best are hard ; the bad easily frangible, their weight is great. 

 The inclination of this bed is considerable ; overlying it at an in- 

 clination of 45°, is the grey quartzose rock which forms the chief 

 part, and perhaps nearly the whole, of the mountain. The Mishmee 

 name for the noduli is Mpladung. 



In the jungle at Yen occurs a huge Palm evidently Caryota, foliis 

 maximis supra decompositis ; the diameter of the trunk is 1^ to 2 

 feet. It is said to die after flowering : the natives use the central 

 lax structures as food. The Yen Gam promises to send me specimens 

 to-morrow. The Palms I have hitherto seen are Wallichia, one or 

 two Calami: Wallichioidia trunco 5-10 pedali, and a Phsenicoidea, 

 but this I only saw at the foot of the mountains near Laee Panee, 

 and the small Areca common about Negrogam. The name of 

 the large Palm in Assamese is Bura Sawar. All the plants com- 

 mon to these and the Cossiya mountains, with one or two excep- 

 tions ; flower much earlier here, those being all past flowering which 

 I gathered in flower on the Cossiya hills in November last. This 

 is owing to the greater cold, and the consequent necessity for the 

 plants flowering at an earlier and warmer period. 



A species of ruminant, or, according to the native account, a 

 species of Pachydermata called the Gan Pohoo, occurs on Thuma- 

 thaya. At the summit of the mountain the ground was in one 

 place rooted up, the Mishmees said, by this animal, which they 

 describe as a large Hog, but which I should rather take to be a kind 

 of Deer. 



Nov. 28th. — Returned to Deeling. At the commencement of the 

 principal descent we gathered Betula and another Cupulifera, both 

 moderately sized trees. Anthestina arundinacea, is about this place 

 very common, and an Andropogon, Culmis ramosis which I had 

 previously brought from the Abor hills. About half way down by a 



