336 TO THE KHASIA MOUNTAINS 
plants, which, as I always say, puts the ordinary vasculum 
hors de combat in an hour ; as to youi' notions of drying 
paper — 80 lbs. is not a great collection for one day, and one 
and a half ream of paper to put them in (Tom adds ' at the 
very least '). Compared to the 4500 feet of Sikkim Himalaya 
(to which these mountains botanically answer), the latter is 
literally a poor botanising country ; but again we have 
here no region like the 5-10,000 feet of Sikkim, nor of the 
Arctic of 10-17,000 feet. 
Our collections, including those of this morning, amount 
to 1176 species, gathered since leaving Dacca ; of which 
800 were gathered since we quitted Punduah — this excludes 
all the species w^e found in these hills which we had gathered 
in the plains, and a gi'eat mass of un:numbered things out 
of flower. I am safe in saying that 1000 species might be 
gathered within five miles of Churra in a week. 
Hodgsonia is in fruit and quite a different plant from 
the Sikkim one ; so it is well you have stopped its premature 
debut, as the confusion of plants and plates of Eoxbm'gh's 
and mine would have been a terrible business. I have a 
fine fruit in spirits for you ; it is not ribbed, and differently 
shaped. 
Despite the rains and the limitation of local supplies, both 
friends kept well and hearty. 
July 20, 1850. 
Tommy Thomson and I get on capitally together — and 
pray tell Aunt Harriet, with my love, that he can still ' eat 
through anything ' as w^ell as your w^ell-appetised son. We 
are getting on very comfortably here. Mrs. Inghs, of Churra, 
sends us every day, by the post which goes on to Assam, a 
tin with a fresh loaf of bread, pat of butter, and a muffin ! 
We get plenty of foAvls and eggs, and occasionally vegetables, 
but little or no milk : for these savages, the ' Khassya ' 
people, though they keep cows, have a prejudice {not religious) 
against milk ! I think this is almost a unique feature in the 
human race. We are extremely busy, as you may suppose, 
more so than we ever were before, and are making enor^nous 
collections of plants, but have much less time than we could 
desire for the microscope and examination, still less for 
drawing and none for other puisuits. The climate is cool 
