60 



CHAPTER IV. 



Journey from Upper Assam towards Hookhoom, Ava, and 

 Rangoon, Lat. 27° 25' to 16° 45' N.> Long. 96° to 96° 

 20' E. 



We left Suddiya on the 7th of February 1837, and reached Red- 

 ding on the 10th ; stayed there one day, and reached Kamroop Pu- 

 tar, where I found Major White and Lieut. Bigge on the 12th. The 

 jungle to this place was similar to the usual jungle of the Singpho 

 country, very generally low, and intersected by ravines. We cross- 

 ed en route the Karam river, the Noa Dihing, or Dihing branch of the 

 Booree Dihing, on which the Beesa's old village was situated ; and 

 lastly the Kamroop. Kamroop Putar is close to the Naga hills ; it is 

 a cultivated rice tract, on the river Kamroop. This river is fordable, 

 with frequent rapids. The only curious things about it are the petro- 

 leum wells, which are confined to three situations. The wells are 

 most numerous towards the summits of the range ; and the place 

 where they occur is free from shrubs. The petroleum is of all 

 colours, from green to bluish white ; this last is the strongest, par- 

 taking of the character of Naptha, it looks like bluish or greyish 

 clay and water. The vegetation of the open places in which the 

 wells are found, consists of grass, Stellaria, Hypericum, Polygonum, 

 Cyperaceae, Mazus rugosus, Plantago media, etc., all of which are 

 found on the plains. One of the wells is found on the Putar, 

 or cultivated ground ; the petroleum in this is grey. The Kamroop 

 river above this Putar, strikes off to the eastward, and the Kamtee- 

 chick, a tributary, falls into it from the south ; this last is a good deal 

 the smaller ; the banks of the Kamroop are in many places preci- 

 pitous. About two miles from the Putar, a fine seam of excellent 

 coal has been exposed by a slip :* the beds are at an inclination of 

 45°, and their direction is, I think, nearly the same with that of the 

 left bank of the river in which they occur ; immediately over the 

 seam there is a small ravine, where three of the veins are still 

 farther exposed. Coricea, a new Dicranum, Alsophila ferruginea, 

 Polytrichum aloides, Bartramea subulosa, and Jungermannise are 

 common near this spot. 



* See Reports of the Coal Committee, 1841, p. 3. 



