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Scientific Intelligence. [No. 8, new series. 



Besides I got here very precious information (not from the in- 

 habitants but from traders coming down from Thibet) about the 

 routes to Lowany, only 4 marches distant, and to Lhassa. 



A very intelligent Bhooteea from Tussisoodun constructed even 

 a map with vertical Section of the different places, in the Chinese 

 style, of the route from Nurigoon* to Lhassa, which agreed very 

 well with the verbal informations I received from the Thibetans. 



Nurigoon is on a rock at the left side of the Riju, the houses on 

 an average between 3,200 to 3,500 feet high, and offered many 

 interesting features for comparison with the Western Himalayas. 



The valleys are here much more gradually rising than in the 

 Westen parts of the Himalayas ; at the same time the height of 

 the mountains is less great, and the inclinations less steep. The 

 vegetation has the luxuriant character peculiar to the Eastern 

 Himalayas, though the quantity of rain is much less than in the 

 lower ranges of the Naga, Khossia and Garrow Hills, on the left 

 side of the valley of the Brahmapootra. 



Yaks come down from Thibet as far as Nurigoon in the cold 

 season and chiefly near the end of it, when the trade to the plains 

 is greatest ; but also wild elephants are very frequent in the val- 

 ley of the Dhunsiri and the Riju, and are occasionally met with 

 even a little above Nurigoon. Such coincidences of lower and 

 upper limits of animals, so different in reference to their zones 

 of altitude, may perhaps be not without interest in explaining the 

 variety of fossil remains in places formerly in similar local and 

 climatological conditions. 



I left Nurigoon January 13th, and went to Tezpore, from there 

 to Debrooghur in Upper Assam, where, besides my own observa- 

 tions, I had occasion to get many precious informations, particu- 

 larly by Colonel Hannay, about geological objects. 



From Debrooghur I descended the Brahmapootra and went by 

 Goalpara, Seraj gunge, Koolna, and through the Sunderbunds to 

 Calcutta. 



* n. B. — This map is added to the drawings, Portfolio the 6th, sent 

 from Calcutta to the Hon'ble the Court of Directors. 



