Books: Himalayan Journals (Complete)

J >> J. D. Hooker >> Himalayan Journals (Complete)

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The soil, which is sandy along the Burrampooter, is more muddy and
clayey in the centre of the Jheels, with immense spongy accumulations
of vegetable matter in the marshes, through which we poked the
boat-staves without finding bottom: they were for the most part
formed of decomposed grass roots, with occasionally leaves, but no
quantity of moss or woody plants. Along the courses of the greater
streams drift timber and various organic fragments are no doubt
imbedded, but as there is no current over the greater part of the
flooded surface, there can be little or no accumulation, except
perhaps of old canoes, or of such vegetables as grow on the spot.
The waters are dark-coloured, but clear and lucid, even at
their height.

We proceeded up the Burrampooter, crossing it obliquely; its banks
were on the average five miles apart, and formed of sand, without
clay, and very little silt or mud: the water was clear and brown,
like that of the Jheels, and very different from that of the Jummul.
We thence turned eastwards into the delta of the Soormah, which we
traversed in a north-easterly direction to the stream itself.
We often passed through very narrow channels, where the grasses
towered over the boats: the boatmen steered in and out of them as
they pleased, and we were utterly at a loss to know how they guided
themselves, as they had neither compass nor map, and there were few
villages or landmarks; and on climbing the mast we saw multitudes of
other masts and sails peeing over the grassy marshes, doing just the
same as we did. All that go up have the south-west wind in their
favour, and this helps them to their course, but beyond this they
have no other guide but that instinct which habit begets. Often we
had to retreat from channels that promised to prove short cuts, but
which turned out to be blind alleys. Sometimes we sailed up broader
streams of chesnut-brown water, accompanied by fleets of boats
repairing to the populous districts at the foot of the Khasia, for
rice, timber, lime, coal, bamboos, and long reeds for thatching, all
of which employ an inland navy throughout the year in their transport
to Calcutta.

Leeches and mosquitos were very troublesome, the latter appearing in
clouds at night; during the day they were rarer, but the species was
the same. A large cray-fish was common, but there were few birds and
no animals to be seen.

Fifty-four barometric observations, taken at the level of the water
on the voyage between Dacca and the Soormah, and compared with
Calcutta, showed a gradual rise of the mercury in proceeding
eastwards; for though the pressure at Calcutta was .055 of an inch
higher than at Dacca, it was .034 lower than on the Soormah: the mean
difference between all these observations and the cotemporaneous ones
at Calcutta was + .003 in favour of Calcutta, and the temperature
half a degree lower; the dew-point and humidity were nearly the same
at both places. This being the driest season of the year, it is very
probable that the mean level of the water at this part of the delta
is not higher than that of the Bay of Bengal; but as we advanced
northwards towards the Khasia, and entered the Soormah itself, the
atmospheric pressure increased further, thus appearing to give the
bed of that stream a depression of thirty-five feet below the Bay of
Bengal, into which it flows! This was no doubt the result of unequal
atmospheric pressure at the two localities, caused by the disturbance
of the column of atmosphere by the Khasia mountains; for in December
of the same year, thirty-eight observations on the surface of the
Soormah made its bed forty-six feet _above_ the Bay of Bengal,
whilst, from twenty-three observations on the Megna, the pressure
only differed + 0.020 of an inch from that of the barometer at
Calcutta, which is eighteen feet above the sea-level.

These barometric levellings, though far from satisfactory as compared
with trigonometric, are extremely interesting in the absence of the
latter. In a scientific point of view nothing has been done towards
determining the levels of the land and waters of the great Gangetic
delta, since Rennell's time, yet no geodetical operation promises
more valuable results in geography and physical geology than running
three lines of level across its area; from Chittagong to Calcutta,
from Silhet to Rampore, and from Calcutta to Silhet. The foot of the
Sikkim Himalaya has, I believe, been connected with Calcutta by the
great trigonometrical survey, but I am given to understand that the
results are not published.

My own barometric levellings would make the bed of the Mahanuddy and
Ganges at the western extremity of the delta, considerably higher
than I should have expected, considering how gentle the current is,
and that the season was that of low water. If my observations are
correct, they probably indicate a diminished pressure, which is not
easily accounted for, the lower portion of the atmospheric column at
Rampore being considerably drier and therefore heavier than at
Calcutta. At the eastern extremity again, towards Silhet, the
atmosphere is much damper than at Calcutta, and the barometer should
therefore have stood lower, indicating a higher level of the waters
than is the case.

To the geologist the Jheels and Sunderbunds are a most instructive
region, as whatever may be the mean elevation of their waters, a
permanent depression of ten to fifteen feet would submerge an immense
tract, which the Ganges, Burrampooter, and Soormah would soon cover
with beds of silt and sand. There would be extremely few shells in
the beds thus formed, the southern and northern divisions of which
would present two very different floras and faunas, and would in all
probability be referred by future geologists to widely different
epochs. To the north, beds of peat would be formed by grasses, and in
other parts, temperate and tropical forms of plants and animals would
be preserved in such equally balanced proportions as to confound the
palaeontologist; with the bones of the long-snouted alligator,
Gangetic porpoise, Indian cow, buffalo, rhinoceros, elephant, tiger,
deer, boar; and a host of other animals, he would meet with acorns of
several species of oak, pine-cones and magnolia fruits, rose seeds,
and _Cycas_ nuts, with palm nuts, screw-pines, and other tropical
productions. On the other hand, the Sunderbunds portion, though
containing also the bones of the tiger, deer, and buffalo, would have
none of the Indian cow, rhinoceros, or elephant; there would be
different species of porpoise, alligator, and deer, and none of the
above mentioned plants (_Cycas,_ oak, pine, magnolia and rose), which
would be replaced by numerous others, all distinct from those of the
Jheels, and many of them indicative of the influence of salt water,
whose proximity (from the rarity of sea-shells) might not otherwise
be suspected.

Illustration--VIEW IN THE JHEELS.

On the 1st of June we entered the Soormah, a full and muddy stream
flowing west, a quarter of a mile broad, with banks of mud and clay
twelve or fifteen feet high, separating it from marshes, and covered
with betel-nut and cocoa-nut palms, figs, and banyans. Many small
villages were scattered along the banks, each with a swarm of boats,
and rude kilns for burning the lime brought from the Khasia
mountains, which is done with grass and bushes. We ascended to
Chattuc, against a gentle current, arriving on the 9th.

From this place the Khasia mountains are seen as a long table-topped
range running east and west, about 4000 to 5000 feet high, with steep
faces towards the Jheels, out of which they appear to rise abruptly.
Though twelve miles distant, large waterfalls are very clearly seen
precipitating themselves over the cliffs into a bright green mass of
foliage, that seems to creep half way up their flanks. The nearly
horizontal arrangement of the strata is as conspicuous here, as in
the sandstone of the Kymore hills in the Soane valley, which these
mountains a good deal resemble; but they are much higher, and the
climate is widely different. Large valleys enter the hills, and are
divided by hog-backed spurs, and it is far within these valleys that
the waterfalls and precipices occur; but the nearer and further
cliffs being thrown by perspective into one range, they seem to rise
out of the Jheels so abruptly as to remind one of some precipitous
island in the ocean.

Chattuc is mainly indebted for its existence to the late Mr. Inglis,
who resided there for upwards of sixty years, and opened a most
important trade between the Khasia and Calcutta in oranges, potatos,
coal, lime, and timber. We were kindly received by his son, whose
bungalow occupies a knoll, of which there are several, which
attracted our attention as being the only elevations fifty feet high
which we had ascended since leaving the foot of the Sikkim Himalaya.
They rise as islets (commonly called Teela, Beng.) out of the Jheels,
within twelve to twenty miles of the Khasia; they are chiefly formed
of stratified gravel and sand, and are always occupied by villages
and large trees. They seldom exceed sixty feet in height, and
increase in number and size as the hills are approached; they are
probably the remains of a deposit that was once spread uniformly
along the foot of the mountains, and they in all respects resemble
those I have described as rising abruptly from the plains near
Titalya (see vol. i. chapter xvii).

The climate of Chattuc is excessively damp and hot throughout the
year, but though sunk amid interminable swamps, the place is
perfectly healthy! Such indeed is the character of the climate
throughout the Jheels, where fevers and agues are rare; and though no
situations can appear more malarious to the common observer than
Silhet and Cachar, they are in fact eminently salubrious. These facts
admit of no explanation in the present state of our knowledge of
endemic diseases. Much may be attributed to the great amount and
purity of the water, the equability of the climate, the absence of
forests and of sudden changes from wet to dry; but such facts afford
no satisfactory explanation. The water, as I have above said, is of a
rich chesnut-brown in the narrow creeks of the Jheels, and is golden
yellow by transmitted light, owing no doubt, as in bog water and that
of dunghills, to a vegetable extractive and probably the presence of
carburetted hydrogen. Humboldt mentions this dark-coloured water as
prevailing in some of the swamps of the Cassiquares, at the junction
of the Orinoco and Amazon, and gives much curious information on its
accompanying features of animal and vegetable life.

The rains generally commence in May: they were unusually late this
year, though the almost daily gales and thunder-storms we
experienced, foretold their speedy arrival. From May till October
they are unremitting, and the country is under water, the Soormah
rising about fifty feet. North-easterly winds prevail, but they are a
local current reflected from the Khasia, against which the southerly
perennial trade-wind impinges. Westerly winds are very rare, but the
dry north-west blasts of India have been known to traverse the delta
and reach this meridian, in one or two short hot dry puffs during
March and April. Hoarfrost is unknown.* [It however forms further
south, at the very mouth of the Megna, and is the effect of intense
radiation when the thermometer in the shade falls to 45 degrees.]

China roses and tropical plants (_Bignoniae, Asclepiadeae,_ and
_Convolvuli_) rendered Mr. Inglis' bungalow gay, but little else will
grow in the gardens. Pine-apples are the best fruit, and oranges from
the foot of the Khasia: plantains ripen imperfectly, and the mango is
always acid, attacked by grubs, and having a flavour of turpentine.
The violent hailstorms of the vernal equinox cut both spring and cold
season flowers and vegetables, and the rains destroy all summer
products. The soil is a wet clay, in which some European vegetables
thrive well if planted in October or November. We were shown
marrowfat peas that had been grown for thirty years without
degenerating in size, but their flavour was poor.

Small long canoes, paddled rapidly by two men, were procured here,
whereby to ascend the narrow rivers that lead up to the foot of the
mountains: they each carry one passenger, who lies along the bottom,
protected by a bamboo platted arched roof. We started at night, and
early the next morning arrived at Pundua,* [Pundua, though an
insignificant village, surrounded by swamps, has enjoyed an undue
share of popularity as a botanical region. Before the geographical
features of the country north of Silhet were known, the plants
brought from those hills by native collectors were sent to the
Calcutta garden (and thence to Europe) as from Pundua. Hence Silhet
mountains and Pundua mountains, both very erroneous terms, are
constantly met with in botanical works, and generally refer to plants
growing in the Khasia mountains.] where there is a dilapidated
bungalow: the inhabitants are employed in the debarkation of lime,
coal, and potatos. Large fleets of boats crowded the narrow creeks,
some of the vessels being of several tons burden.

Elephants were kindly sent here for us by Mr. H. Inglis, to take us
to the foot of the mountains, about three miles distant, and relays
of mules and ponies to ascend to Churra, where we were received with
the greatest hospitality by that gentleman, who entertained us till
the end of June, and procured us servants and collectors. To his kind
offices we were also indebted throughout our travels in the Khasia,
for much information, and for facilities and necessaries of all
kinds: things in which the traveller is more dependent on his fellow
countrymen in India, than in any other part of the world.

We spent two days at Pundua, waiting for our great boats (which drew
several feet of water), and collecting in the vicinity. The old
bungalow, without windows and with the roof falling in, was a most
miserable shelter; and whichever way we turned from the door, a river
or a swamp lay before us. Birds, mosquitos, leeches, and large wasps
swarmed, also rats and sandflies. A more pestilential hole cannot be
conceived; and yet people traverse this district, and sleep here at
all seasons of the year with impunity. We did so ourselves in the
month of June, when the Sikkim and all other Terais are deadly: we
returned in September, traversing the Jheels and nullahs at the very
foot of the hills during a short break of fine weather in the middle
of the rains; and we again slept here in November,* [At the north
foot of the Khasia, in the heavily timbered dry Terai stretching for
sixty miles to the Burrampooter, it is almost inevitable death for a
European to sleep, any time between the end of April and of November.
Many have crossed that tract, but not one without taking fever:
Mr. H. Inglis was the only survivor of a party of five, and he was
ill from the effects for upwards of two years, after having been
brought to death's door by the first attack, which came on within
three weeks of his arrival at Churra, and by several relapses.]
always exposed in the heat of the day to wet and fatigue, and never
having even a _soupcon_ of fever, ague, or rheumatism. This immunity
does not, however, extend to the very foot of the hills, as it is
considered imprudent to sleep at this season in the bungalow of
Terrya, only three miles off.

The elevation of Pundua bungalow is about forty feet above the sea,
and that of the waters surrounding it, from ten to thirty, according
to the season. In June the mean of the barometer readings at the
bungalow was absolutely identical with that of the Calcutta
barometer, In September it was 0.016 inch lower, and in November
0.066 lower. The mean annual temperature throughout the Jheels is
less than 2 degrees below that of Calcutta.

Terrya bungalow lies at the very foot of the first rise of the
mountains; on the way we crossed many small streams upon the
elephants, and one large one by canoes: the water in all was cool*
[Temperature in September 77 degrees to 80 degrees; and in November
75.7 degrees.] and sparkling, running rapidly over boulders and
pebbles. Their banks of sandy clay were beautifully fringed with a
willow-like laurel, _Ehretia_ bushes, bamboos, palms, _Bauhinia,
Bombax,_ and _Erythrina,_ over which _Calamus_ palm (rattan) and
various flowering plants climbed. The rock at Terrya is a nummulitic
limestone, worn into extensive caverns. This formation is said to
extend along the southern flank of the Khasia, Garrow, and Jyntea
mountains, and to be associated with sandstone and coal: it is
extensively quarried in many places, several thousand tons being
annually shipped for Calcutta and Dacca. It is succeeded by a
horizontally stratified sandstone, which is continued up to 4000
feet, where it is overlain by coal-beds and then by limestone again.

The sub-tropical scenery of the lower and outer Sikkim Himalaya,
though on a much more gigantic scale, is not comparable in beauty and
luxuriance with the really tropical vegetation induced by the hot,
damp, and insular climate of these perennially humid mountains.
At the Himalaya forests of gigantic trees, many of them deciduous,
appear from a distance as masses of dark gray foliage, clothing
mountains 10,000 feet high: here the individual trees are smaller,
more varied in kind, of a brilliant green, and contrast with gray
limestone and red sandstone rocks and silvery cataracts. Palms are
more numerous here;* [There are upwards of twenty kinds of Palm in
this district, including _Chamaerops,_ three species of _Areca,_ two
of _Wallichia, Arenga, Caryota,_ three of _Phoenix, Plectocomia,
Licuala,_ and many species of _Calamus._ Besides these there are
several kinds of _Pandanus,_ and the _Cycas pectinata._] the
cultivated _Areca_ (betel-nut) especially, raising its graceful stem
and feathery crown, "like an arrow shot down from heaven," in
luxuriance and beauty above the verdant slopes. This difference is at
once expressed to the Indian botanist by defining the Khasia flora as
of Malayan character; by which is meant the prevalence of brilliant
glossy-leaved evergreen tribes of trees (as _Euphorbiaceae_ and
_Urticeae_), especially figs, which abound in the hot gulleys, where
the property of their roots, which inosculate and form natural
grafts, is taken advantage of in bridging streams, and in
constructing what are called living bridges, of the most picturesque
forms. _Combretaceae,_ oaks, oranges, _Garcinia_ (gamboge),
_Diospyros,_ figs, Jacks, plantains, and _Pandanus,_ are more
frequent here, together with pinnated leaved _Leguminosae,
Meliaceae,_ vines and peppers, and above all palms, both climbing
ones with pinnated shining leaves (as _Calamus_ and _Plectocomia_),
and erect ones with similar leaves (as cultivated cocoa-nut, _Areca_
and _Arenga_), and the broader-leaved wild betel-nut, and beautiful
_Caryota_ or wine-palm, whose immense decompound leaves are twelve
feet long. Laurels and wild nutmegs, with _Henslowia, Itea,_ etc.,
were frequent in the forest, with the usual prevalence of parasites,
mistleto, epiphytical _Orchideae, AEshynanthus,_ ferns, mosses, and
_Lycopodia_; and on the ground were _Rubiaceae, Scitamineae,_ ferns,
_Acanthaceae,_ beautiful balsams, and herbaceous and shrubby nettles.
Bamboos* [The natives enumerate about fourteen different kinds of
bamboo, of which we found five in flower, belonging to three very
distinct genera. Uspar, Uspet, Uspit, Usken, Uskong, Uktang, Usto,
Silee, Namlang, Tirra, and Battooba are some of the names of Bamboos
vouched for by Mr. Inglis as correctly spelt. Of other Khasia names
of plants, Wild Plantains are called Kairem, and the cultivated
Kakesh; the latter are considered so nourishing that they are given
to newborn infants. Senteo is a flower in Khas, So a fruit, Ading a
tree, and Te a leaf. _Pandanus_ is Kashelan. _Plectocomia,_ Usmole.
_Licuala,_ Kuslow. _Caryota,_ Kalai-katang. _Wallichia,_ Kalai-nili.
_Areca,_ Waisola. Various _Calami_ are Rhimet, Uriphin, Ureek hilla,
Tindrio, etc. This list will serve as a specimen; I might increase it
materially, but as I have elsewhere observed, the value attached to
the supposed definite application of native names to natural objects
is greatly over-rated, and too much reliance on them has introduced a
prodigious amount of confusion into scientific works and philological
inquiries.] of many kinds are very abundant, and these hills further
differ remarkably from those of Sikkim in the great number of species
of grasses.

The ascent was at first gradual, along the sides of a sandstone spur.
At 2000 feet the slope suddenly became steep and rocky, at 3000 feet
tree vegetation disappeared, and we opened a magnificent prospect of
the upper scarped flank of the valley of Moosmai, which we were
ascending, with four or five beautiful cascades rolling over the
table top of the hills, broken into silvery foam as they leapt from
ledge to ledge of the horizontally stratified precipice, and throwing
a veil of silver gauze over the gulf of emerald green vegetation,
2000 feet below. The views of the many cataracts of the first class
that are thus precipitated over the bare table-land on which Churra
stands, into the valleys on either side, surpass anything of the kind
that I have elsewhere seen, though in many respects vividly recalling
the scenery around Rio de Janeiro: nor do I know any spot in the
world more calculated to fascinate the naturalist who, while
appreciating the elements of which a landscape is composed, is also
keenly alive to the beauty and grandeur of tropical scenery.

Illustration--"LIVING BRIDGE" FORMED BY THE AERIAL ROOTS OF THE
INDIA-RUBBER AND OTHER KINDS OF FIGS.

At the point where this view opens, a bleak stony region commences,
bearing numberless plants of a temperate flora and of European
genera, at a comparatively low elevation; features which continue to
the top of the flat on which the station is built, 4000 feet above
the sea.

Illustration--DEWAN'S EAR-RING.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Churra, English station of -- Khasia people -- Garrow people --
Houses -- Habits -- Dress -- Arms -- Dialects -- Marriages -- Food --
Funerals -- Superstitions -- Flat of Churra -- Scenery -- Lime and
coal -- Mamloo -- Cliffs -- Cascades -- _Chamaerops_ palm --
Jasper-rocks -- Flora of Churra -- Orchids -- Rhododendrons -- Pine
-- Climate -- Extraordinary rain-fall -- Its effects -- Gardens of
Lieuts. Raban and Cave -- Leave Churra to cross the mountain range --
Coal, shale, and underclay -- Kala-panee river -- Lailangkot --
_Luculia Pinceana_ -- Conglomerate Surureem wood -- Boga-panee river
-- View of Himalaya -- Green-stone -- Age of Pine-cones -- Moflong
plants -- _Coix_ -- Chillong mountain -- Extensive view -- Road to
Syong -- Broad valleys -- Geology -- Plants -- Myrung -- Granite
blocks -- Kollong rock -- Pine-woods -- Features of country --
Orchids -- Iron forges.

Churra Poonji is said to be so called from the number of streams in
the neighbourhood, and poonji, "a village" (Khas.): it was selected
for a European station, partly from the elevation and consequent
healthiness of the spot, and partly from its being on the high road
from Silhet to Gowahatty, on the Burrampooter, the capital of Assam,
which is otherwise only accessible by ascending that river, against
both its current and the perennial east wind. A rapid postal
communication is hereby secured: but the extreme unhealthiness of the
northern foot of the mountains effectually precludes all other
intercourse for nine months in the year.

On the first opening up of the country, the Europeans were brought
into sanguinary collision with the Khasias, who fought bravely with
bows and arrows, displaying a most blood-thirsty and cruel
disposition. This is indeed natural to them; and murders continued
very frequent as preludes to the most trifling robberies, until the
extreme penalty of our law was put in force. Even now, some of the
tributary Rajahs are far from quiet under our rule, and various parts
of the country are not safe to travel in. The Garrows, who occupy the
western extremity of this range, at the bend of the Burrampooter, are
still in a savage state. Human sacrifices and polyandry are said to
be frequent amongst them, and their orgies are detestable. Happily we
are hardly ever brought into collision with them, except by their
occasional depredations on the Assam and Khasia frontier: their
country is very unhealthy, and is said to contain abundance of coal,
iron, and lime.

We seldom employed fewer than twelve or fourteen of the natives as
collectors, and when travelling, from thirty to forty as coolies,
etc. They are averse to rising early, and are intolerably filthy in
their persons, though not so in their cottages, which are very poor,
with broad grass roofs reaching nearly to the ground, and usually
encircled by bamboo fences; the latter custom is not common in savage
communities, and perhaps indicates a dread of treachery. The beams
are of hewn wood (they do not use saws), often neatly carved, and the
doors turn on good wooden pivots. They have no windows, and the fire
is made on the floor: the utensils, etc. are placed on hanging
shelves and in baskets.