444 The Physical Condition of the Assam Tea Plant. [Oct. 



part of India. I have already adverted to a large squirrel as pecu- 

 liar to Eastern Assam, and although it is there extremely com- 

 mon, not an individual has been found in Lower Assam ; or even 

 beyond the northern limit of the alluvium. From thence it is proba- 

 bly extended to the eastward, but occurring only in valleys affording 

 similar vegetation, and consequently possessed of similar peculiarities 

 in structure and climate to Assam. The Simia Hylobates agilis Duvau- 

 cel a species of ape, appears from the observations of Dr. Harlan to 

 be almost equally limited to Assam and its vicinity.* 



If from the lower animals we now direct our attention to the various 

 tribes of man which compose the several nations by which Assam is 

 surrounded, we shall find the same line of demarcation interposed be- 

 tween the eastern and western varieties of this species, as already ob- 

 served with reference to other beings. The Singphos, or people who 

 inhabit the Dupha mountains display in the construction of their face, 

 the light colour of their skin, their manners and ingenuity, the almost 

 pure Mongolian or Chinese race. The Nagas on the contrary, who in- 

 habit the vast mountainous country extending from Assam to the fron- 

 tier of Birma, incline (if I may judge from the few individuals I had 

 an opportunity of witnessing), to the most degenerate of Caucasian 

 Hindoos, but without a trace of their religion. Yet it is a curious fact' 

 that the Kossia tribe which occupies the western extremity of the same 

 mountain-group, are a well marked branch of the Mongolian race, 

 which here appears to have extended to the extreme point where the 

 climate and natural productions cease to resemble thojse of the coun- 

 tries from whence they were derived ; and thus surrounded by power- 

 ful Caucasian nations, and intercepted by the Nagas, this insulated 

 people appear not merely to have maintained their independence ; but 

 the purity of their blood, as well as distinct customs, language, and re- 

 ligion. 



In this way we derive from Zoology additional aid in support of 

 those views which the sister sciences afford, and are taught to look up- 

 on the tea plant in Assam, thus associated with the natural productions 

 of Eastern Asia, not as an alien estranged from its own climate, but as 

 an indigenous plant neglected it is true by man, but in the full enjoy- 

 ment from nature of all those peculiar conditions on which its proper- 

 ties will be found under proper management to depend. 



* It is described in his Medical and Physical Researches, Philadelphia, 1835, page 10, 

 as a new species under the name of Simia hoojoek. 



