Lillian Elizabeth Roy - "Polly of Pebbly Pit"

George Bernard Shaw - "The Inca of Perusalem"

Charlotte M. Yonge - "The Lances Of Lynwood"

Frank Gee Patchin - "The Pony Rider Boys in New Mexico"

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PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

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Books: Himalayan Journals (Complete)

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




The descent is very steep, and carried down a slope of greenstone;*
[This greenstone decomposes into a thick bed of red clay; it is much
intersected by fissures or cleavage planes at all angles, whose
surfaces are covered with a shining polished superficial layer; like
the fissures in the cleavage planes of the gneiss granite of
Kinchinjhow, whose adjacent surfaces are coated with a glassy waved
layer of hornblende. This polishing of the surfaces is generally
attributed to their having been in contact and rubbed together, an
explanation which is wholly unsatisfactory to me; no such motion
could take place in cleavage planes which often intersect, and were
it to occur, it would not produce two polished surfaces of an
interposed layer of a softer mineral. It is more probably due to
metamorphic action.] the road then follows. a clear affluent of the
Boga-panee, and afterwards winds along the margin of that river,
which is a rapid turbulent stream, very muddy, and hence contrasting
remarkably with the Kala-panee. It derives its mud from the
decomposition of granite, which is washed by the natives for iron,
and in which rock it rises to the eastward. Thick beds of slate crop
out by the roadside (strike north-east and dip north-west), and are
continued along the bed of the river, passing into conglomerates,
chert, purple slates, and crystalline sandstones, with pebbles, and
angular masses of schist. Many of these rocks are much crumpled,
others quite flat, and they are overlaid by soft, variegated gneiss,
which is continued alternately with the slates to the top of the
hills on the opposite side.

Small trees of hornbeam grow near the river, with _Rhus, Xanthoxylon,
Vaccinium, Gualtheria,_ and _Spiraea,_ while many beautiful ferns,
mosses, and orchids cover the rocks. An elegant iron suspension-
bridge is thrown across the stream, from a rock matted with tufts of
little parasitic _Orchideae._ Crossing it, we came on many
pine-trees; these had five-years' old cones on them, as well as those
of all succeeding years; they bear male flowers in autumn, which
impregnate the cones formed the previous year. Thus, the cones formed
in the spring of 1850 are fertilised in the following autumn, and do
not ripen their seeds till the second following autumn, that of 1852.

A very steep ascent leads to the bungalow of Moflong, on a broad,
bleak hill-top, near the axis of the range (alt. 6,062 feet). Here
there is a village, and some cultivation, surrounded by hedges of
_Erythrina, Pieris, Viburnum,_ _Pyres, Colquhounia,_ and
_Corylopsis,_ amongst which grew an autumn-flowering lark-spur, with
most foetid flowers.* [There is a wood a mile to the west of the
bungalow, worth visiting by the botanist: besides yew, oak, _Sabia_
and _Camellia,_ it contains _Olea, Euonymus,_ and _Sphaerocarya,_ a
small tree that bears a green pear-shaped sweet fruit, with a large
stone: it is pleasant, but leaves a disagreeable taste in the mouth.
On the grassy flats an _Astragalus_ occurs, and _Roscoea purpurea,
Tofieldia,_ and various other fine plants are common.] The rocks are
much contorted slates and gneiss (strike north-east and dip
south-east). In a deep gulley to the northward, greenstone appears,
with black basalt and jasper, the latter apparently altered gneiss:
beyond this the rocks strike the opposite way, but are much disturbed.

We passed the end of June here, and experienced the same violent
weather, thunder, lightning, gales, and rain, which prevailed during
every midsummer I spent in India. A great deal of _Coix_ (Job's
tears) is cultivated about Moflong: it is of a dull greenish purple,
and though planted in drills, and carefully hoed and weeded, is a
very ragged crop. The shell of the cultivated sort is soft, and the
kernel is sweet; whereas the wild _Coix_ is so hard that it cannot be
broken by the teeth. Each plant branches two or three times from the
base, and from seven to nine plants grow in each square yard of soil:
the produce is small, not above thirty or forty fold.

From a hill behind Moflong bungalow, on which are some stone altars,
a most superb view is obtained of the Bhotan Himalaya to the
northward, their snowy peaks stretching in a broken series from north
17 degrees east to north 35 degrees west; all are below the horizon
of the spectator, though from 17,000 to 20,000 feet above his level.
The finest view in the Khasia mountains, and perhaps a more extensive
one than has ever before been described, is that from Chillong hill,
the culminant point of the range, about six miles north-east from
Moflong bungalow. This hill, 6,660 feet above the sea, rises from an
undulating grassy country, covered with scattered trees and
occasional clumps of wood; the whole scenery about being park-like,
and as little like that of India at so low an elevation as it is
possible to be.

I visited Chillong in October with Lieutenant Cave; starting from
Churra, and reaching the bungalow, two miles from its top, the same
night, with two relays of ponies, which he had kindly provided.
We were unfortunate in not obtaining a brilliant view of the snowy
mountains, their tops being partially clouded; but the _coup d'oeil_
was superb. Northward, beyond the rolling Khasia hills, lay the whole
Assam valley, seventy miles broad, with the Burrampooter winding
through it, fifty miles distant, reduced to a thread. Beyond this,
banks of hazy vapour obscured all but the dark range of the Lower
Himalaya, crested by peaks of frosted silver, at the immense distance
of from 100 to 220 miles from Chillong. All are below the horizon of
the observer; yet so false is perspective, that they seem high in the
air. The mountains occupy sixty degrees of the horizon, and stretch
over upwards of 250 miles, comprising the greatest extent of snow
visible from any point with which I am acquainted.

Westward from Chillong the most distant Garrow hills visible are
about forty miles off; and eastward those of Cachar, which are
loftier, are about seventy miles. To the south the view is limited by
the Tipperah hills, which, where nearest, are 100 miles distant;
while to the south-west lies the sea-like Gangetic delta, whose
horizon, lifted by refraction, must be fully 120. The extent of this
view is therefore upwards of 340 miles in one direction, and the
visible horizon of the observer encircles an area of fully thirty
thousand square miles, which is greater than that of Ireland!

Scarlet-flowered rhododendron bushes cover the north side of
Chillong,* [These skirt a wood of prickly bamboo, in which occur fig,
laurel, _Aralia, Boemeria, Smilax, Toddalia,_ wild cinnamon, and
three kinds of oak.] whilst the south is grassy and quite bare; and
except some good _Orchideae_ on the trees, there is little to reward
the botanist. The rocks appeared to be sandstone at the summit, but
micaceous gneiss all around.

Continuing northward from Moflong, the road, after five miles, dips
into a very broad and shallow flat-floored valley, fully a mile
across, which resembles a lake-bed: it is bounded by low hills, and
is called "Lanten-tannia," and is bare of aught but long grass and
herbs; amongst these are the large groundsel (_Senecio_), _Dipsacus,
Ophelia,_ and _Campanula._ On its south flank the micaceous slates
strike north-east, and dip north-west, and on the top repose beds, a
foot in thickness, of angular water-worn gravel, indicating an
ancient water-level, 400 feet above the floor of the valley.
Other smaller lake-beds, in the lateral valleys, are equally evident.

A beautiful blue-flowered _Clitoria_ creeps over the path, with the
ground-raspberry of Dorjiling. From the top a sudden descent of 400
feet leads to another broad flat valley, called "Syong" (elevation,
5,725 feet), in which is a good bungalow, surrounded by hedges of
_Prinsepia utilis,_ a common north-west Himalayan plant, only found
at 8000 feet in Sikkim. The valley is grassy, but otherwise bare.
Beyond this the road passes over low rocky hills, wooded on their
north or sheltered flanks only, dividing flat-floored valleys: a red
sandy gneiss is the prevalent rock, but boulders of syenite are
scattered about. Extensive moors (elevation, 6000 feet) succeed,
covered with stunted pines, brake, and tufts of harsh grasses.*
[These are principally _Andropogon_ and _Brachypodium,_ amongst which
grow yellow _Corydalis, Thalictrum, Anemone, Parnassia, Prunella,_
strawberry, _Eupatorium, Hypericum,_ willow, a _Polygonum_ like
_Bistorta, Osmunda regalis_ and another species _Lycopodium alpinum,_
a _Senecio_ like _Jacobaea,_ thistles, _Gnaphalium,_ Gentians, _Iris,
Paris, Sanguisorba_ and _Agrimonia._]

Near the Dengship-oong (river), which flows in a narrow valley, is a
low dome of gneiss altered by syenite. The prevalent dip is uniformly
south-east, and the strike north-east; and detached boulders of
syenite become more frequent, resting on a red gneiss, full of black
garnets, till the descent to the valley of Myrung, one of the most
beautiful spots in the Khasia, and a favourite resort, having an
excellent bungalow which commands a superb view of the Himalaya:
it is 5,650 feet above the sea, and is placed on the north flank of a
very shallow marshy valley, two miles broad, and full of rice
cultivation, as are the flat heads of all the little valleys that
lead into it. There is a guard here of light infantry, and a little
garden, boasting a gardener and some tea-plants, so that we had
vegetables during our four visits to the place, on two of which
occasions we stayed some days.

From Kala-panee to Myrung, a distance of thirty-two miles, the road
does not vary 500 feet above or below the mean level of 5,700 feet,
and the physical features are the same throughout, of broad
flat-floored, steep-sided valleys, divided by bleak, grassy,
tolerably level-topped bills. Beyond Myrung the Khasia mountains
slope to the southward in rolling loosely-wooded hills, but the spurs
do not dip suddenly till beyond Nunklow, eight miles further north.

On the south side of the Myrung valley is Nungbree wood, a dense
jungle, occupying, like all the other woods, the steep north exposure
of the hill; many good plants grow in it, including some gigantic
_Balanophorae, Pyrola,_ and _Monotropa._ The bungalow stands on soft,
contorted, decomposing gneiss, which is still the prevalent rock,
striking north-east. On the hills to the east of it, enormous hard
blocks lie fully exposed, and are piled on one another, as if so
disposed by glacial action; and it is difficult to account for them
by denudation, though their surface scales, and similar blocks are
scattered around Myrung exactly similar to the syenite blocks of
Nunklow, and the granite ones of Nonkreem, to be described hereafter,
and which are undoubtedly due to the process of weathering. A great
mass of flesh-coloured crystalline granite rises in the centre of the
valley, to the east of the road: it is fissured in various
directions, and the surface scales concentrically; it is obscurely
stratified in some parts, and appears to be half granite and half
gneiss in mineralogical character.

We twice visited a very remarkable hill, called Kollong, which rises
as a dome of granite 5,400 feet high, ten or twelve miles south-west
of Myrung, and conspicuous from all directions. The path to it turns
off from that to Nunklow, and strikes westerly along the shallow
valley of Monai, in which is a village, and much rice and other
cultivation. Near this there is a large square stockade, formed of
tall bamboos placed close together, very like a New Zealand "Pa;"
indeed, the whole country hereabouts much recalls the grassy clay
hills, marshy valleys, and bushy ridges of the Bay of Islands.
The hills on either side are sometimes dotted with pinewoods,
sometimes conical and bare, with small clumps of pines on the summit
only; while in other places are broad tracts containing nothing but
young trees, resembling plantations, but which, I am assured, are not
planted; on the other hand, however, Mr. Yule states, that the
natives do plant fir-trees, especially near the iron forges, which
give employment to all the people of Monai.

All the streams rise in flat marshy depressions amongst the hills
with which the whole country is covered; and both these features,
together with the flat clay marshes into which the rivers expand, are
very suggestive of tidal action. Rock is hardly anywhere seen, except
in the immediate vicinity of Kollong, where are many scattered
boulders of fine-grained gneiss, of which are made the broad stone
slabs, placed as seats, and the other erections of this singular
people. We repeatedly remarked cones of earth, clay, and pebbles,
about twelve feet high, upon the hills, which appeared to be
artificial, but of which the natives could give no explanation.
Wild apple and birch are common trees, but there is little jungle,
except in the hollows, and on the north slopes of the higher hills.
Coarse long grass, with bushes of Labiate and Composite plants, are
the prevalent features.

Kollong rock is a steep dome of red granite,* [This granite is highly
crystalline, and does not scale or flake, nor is its surface
polished.] accessible from the north and east, but almost
perpendicular to the southward, where the slope is 80 degrees for 600
feet. The elevation is 400 feet above the mean level of the
surrounding ridges, and 700 above the bottom of the valleys.
The south or steepest side is encumbered with enormous detached
blocks, while the north is clothed with a dense forest, containing
red tree-rhododendrons and oaks; on its skirts grew a white bushy
rhododendron, which we found nowhere else. The hard granite of the
top was covered with matted mosses, lichens, Lycopodiums, and ferns,
amongst which were many curious and beautiful airplants.* [_Eria,
Coelogyne_ (_Wallichii, maculata,_ and _elata_), _Cymbidium,
Dendrobium, Sunipia_ some of them flowering profusely; and though
freely exposed to the sun and wind, dews and frosts, rain and
droughts, they were all fresh, bright, green and strong, under very
different treatment from that to which they are exposed in the damp,
unhealthy, steamy orchid-houses of our English gardens. A wild onion
was most abundant all over the top of the hill, with _Hymenopogon,
Vaccinium, Ophiopogon, Anisadenia, Commelyna, Didymocarpus,
Remusatia, Hedychium,_ grass and small bamboos, and a good many other
plants. Many of the lichens were of European kinds; but the mosses
(except _Bryum argenteum_) and ferns were different. A small
_Staphylinus,_ which swarmed under the sods, was the only insect
I remarked.]

Illustration--KOLLONG ROCK.

The view from the top is very extensive to the northward, but not
elsewhere: it commands the Assam valley and the Himalaya, and the
billowy range of undulating grassy Khasia mountains. Few houses were
visible, but the curling smoke from the valleys betrayed their
lurking-places, whilst the tinkling sound of the hammers from the
distant forges on all sides was singularly musical and pleasing; they
fell on the ear like "bells upon the wind," each ring being
exquisitely melodious, and chiming harmoniously with the others.
The solitude and beauty of the scenery, and the emotions excited by
the music of chimes, tended to tranquillise our minds, wearied by the
fatigues of travel, and the excitement of pursuits that required
unremitting attention; and we rested for some time, our imaginations
wandering to far-distant scenes, brought vividly to our minds by
these familiar sounds.



CHAPTER XXIX.

View of Himalaya from the Khasia -- Great masses of snow -- Chumulari
-- Donkia -- Grasses -- Nunklow -- Assam valley and Burrampooter --
Tropical forest -- Borpanee -- Rhododendrons -- Wild elephants --
Blocks of Syenite -- Return to Churra -- Coal -- August temperature
-- Leave for Chela -- Jasper hill -- Birds -- _Arundina_ -- Habits of
leaf-insects -- Curious village -- Houses -- Canoes -- Boga-panee
river -- Jheels -- Chattuc -- Churra -- Leave for Jyntea hills --
Trading parties -- Dried fish -- Cherries -- Cinnamon -- Fraud --
Pea-violet -- Nonkreem -- Sandstone -- Pines -- Granite boulders --
Iron washing -- Forges -- Tanks -- Siberian _Nymphaea_ -- Barren
country -- Pomrang -- _Podostemon_ -- Patchouli plant -- Mooshye --
Enormous stone slabs -- Pitcher-plant -- Joowye cultivation and
vegetation -- _Hydropeltis_ -- Sulky hostess -- Nurtiung --
_Hamamelis chinensis_ -- Bor-panee river -- Sacred grove and gigantic
stone structures -- Altars -- Pyramids, etc. -- Origin of names --
_Vanda coerulea_ -- Collections -- November vegetation -- Geology of
Khasia -- Sandstone -- Coal -- Lime -- Gneiss -- Greenstone -- Tidal
action -- Strike of rocks -- Comparison with Rajmahal hills and the
Himalaya.

The snowy Himalaya was not visible during our first stay at Myrung,
from the 5th to the 10th of July; but on three subsequent occasions,
viz., 27th and 28th of July, 13th to 17th October, and 22nd to 25th
October, we saw these magnificent mountains, and repeatedly took
angular heights and bearings of the principal peaks. The range, as
seen from the Khasia, does not form a continuous line of snowy
mountains, but the loftiest eminences are conspicuously grouped into
masses, whose position is probably between the great rivers which
rise far beyond them and flow through Bhotan. This arrangement
indicates that relation of the rivers to the masses of snow, which I
have dwelt upon in the Appendix; and further tends to prove that the
snowy mountains, seen from the southward, are not on the axis of a
mountain chain, and do not even indicate its position; but that they
are lofty meridional spurs which, projecting southward, catch the
moist vapours, become more deeply snowed, and protect the dry loftier
regions behind.

The most conspicuous group of snows seen from the Khasia bears N.N.E.
from Myrung, and consists of three beautiful mountains with
wide-spreading snowy shoulders. These are distant (reckoning from
west to east) respectively 164, 170, and 172 miles from Myrung, and
subtend angles of + 0 degrees 4 minutes 0 seconds, - 0 degrees 1
minute 30 seconds, and -0 degrees 2 minutes 28 seconds.* [These
angles were taken both at sunrise and sunset, and with an excellent
theodolite, and were repeated after two considerable intervals.
The telescopes were reversed after each observation, and every
precaution used to insure accuracy; nevertheless the mean of one set
of observations of angular height often varied 1 degree from that of
another set. This is probably much due to atmospheric refraction,
whose effect and amount it is impossible to estimate accurately in
such cases. Here the objects are not only viewed through 160 miles of
atmosphere, but through belts from between 6000 to 20,000 feet of
vertical height, varying in humidity and transparency at different
parts of the interval. If we divide this column of atmosphere into
sections parallel to those of latitude, we have first a belt fifteen
miles broad, hanging over the Khasia, 2000 to 4000 feet above the
sea; beyond it, a second belt, seventy miles broad, hangs over the
Assam valley, which is hardly 300 feet above the level of the sea;
and thirdly, the northern part of the column, which reposes on 60 to
100 miles of the Bhotan lower Himalaya: each of these belts has
probably a different refractive power.] From Nunklow (940 feet lower
than Myrung) they appear higher, the western peak rising 14 degrees
35 minutes above the horizon; whilst from Moflong (32 miles further
south, and elevation 6,062 feet) the same is sunk 2 degrees below the
horizon. My computations make this western mountain upwards of 24,000
feet high; but according to Col. Wilcox's angles, taken from the
Assam valley, it is only 21,600, the others being respectively 20,720
and 21,475. Captain Thuillier (the Deputy Surveyor General) agrees
with me in considering that Colonel Wilcox's altitudes are probably
much under-estimated, as those of other Himalayan peaks to the
westward were by the old surveyors. It is further evident that these
mountains have (as far as can be estimated by angles) fully 6-8000
feet of snow on them, which would not be the case were the loftiest
only 21,600 feet high.

It is singular, that to the eastward of this group, no snowy
mountains are seen, and the lower Himalaya also dip suddenly.
This depression is no doubt partly due to perspective; but as there
is no such sudden disappearance of the chain to the westward, where
peaks are seen 35 degrees to the west of north, it is far more
probable that the valley of the Soobansiri river, which rises in
Tibet far behind these peaks, is broad and open; as is that of the
Dihong, still farther east, which we have every reason to believe is
the Tibetan Yaru or Burrampooter.

Supposing then the eastern group to indicate the mountain mass
separating the Soobansiri from the Monass river, no other mountains
conspicuous for altitude or dimension rise between N.N.E. and north,
where there is another immense group. This, though within 120 miles
of Myrung, is below its horizon, and scarcely above that of Nunklow
(which is still nearer to it), and cannot therefore attain any
great elevation.

Far to the westward again, is a very lofty peaked mountain bearing
N.N.W., which subtends an angle of -3 degrees 30 minutes from Myrung,
and +6 degrees 0 minutes from Nunklow. The angles of this seem to
indicate its being either Chumulari, or that great peak which I saw
due east from Bbomtso top, and which I then estimated at ninety miles
off and 23,500 feet high. From the Khasia angles, its latitude and
longitude are 28 degrees 6 minutes and 89 degrees 30 minutes, its
elevation 27,000 feet, and its distance from Myrung 200 miles. I need
hardly add that neither the position nor the elevation computed from
such data is worthy of confidence.

Further still, to the extreme west, is an immense low hog-backed mass
of snow, with a small peak on it; this bears north-west, both from
Myrung and Nunklow, subtending an angle of -25 minutes from the
former, and -17 minutes from the latter station. It is in all
probability Chumulari, 210 miles distant from Nunklow. Donkia, if
seen, would be distant 230 miles from the same spot in the Khasia,
and Kinchinjunga 260; possibly they are visible (by refraction) from
Chillong, though even further from it.

The distance from Myrung to Nunklow is ten miles, along an excellent
road. The descent is at first sudden, beyond which the country is
undulating, interspersed with jungle (of low trees, chiefly oaks) and
marshes, with much rice cultivation. Grasses are exceedingly
numerous; we gathered fifty kinds, besides twenty _Cyperaceae_: four
were cultivated, namely sugar-cane, rice, _Coix,_ and maize. Most of
the others were not so well suited to pasturage as those of higher
localities. Dwarf Phoenix palm occurs by the roadside at 5000 feet
elevation.

Gneiss (with garnets) highly inclined, was the prevalent rock
(striking north-east), and scattered boulders of syenite became very
frequent. In one place the latter rock is seen bursting through the
gneiss, which is slaty and very crystalline at the junction.

Nunklow is placed at the northern extremity of a broad spur that
over-hangs the valley of the Burrampooter river, thirty miles
distant. The descent from it is very rapid, and beyond it none of the
many spurs thrown out by the Khasia attain more than 1000 feet
elevation; hence, though the range does not present so abrupt a face
to the Burrampooter as it does to the Jheels, Nunklow is considered
as on the brink of its north slope. The elevation of the bungalow is
4,688 feet, and the climate being hot, it swarms with mosquitos,
fleas, and rats. It commands a superb view to the north, of the
Himalayan snows, of the Burrampooter, and intervening malarious Terai
forest; and to the south, of the undulating Khasia, with Kollong rock
bearing south-west. All the hills between this and Myrung look from
Nunklow better wooded than they do from Myrung, in consequence of the
slopes exposed to the south being bare of forest.

A thousand feet below the bungalow, a tropical forest begins, of
figs, birch, horse-chestnut, oak, nutmeg. _Cedrela, Engelhardtia,
Artocarpeae,_ and _Elaeocarpus,_ in the gullies, and tall pines on
the dry slopes, which are continued down to the very bottom of the
valley in which flows the Bor-panee, a broad and rapid river that
descends from Chillong, and winds round the base of the Nunklow spur.
Many of the pines are eighty feet high, and three or four in
diameter, but none form gigantic trees. The quantity of balsams in
the wet ravines is very great, and tree-ferns of several kinds are
common.

The Bor-panee is about forty yards wide, and is spanned by an elegant
iron suspension-bridge, that is clamped to the gneiss rock (strike
north-east, dip north-west) on either bank; beneath is a series of
cascades, none high, but all of great beauty from the broken masses
of rocks and picturesque scenery on either side. We frequently
botanised up and down the river with great success: many curious
plants grow on its stony and rocky banks; and amongst them
_Rhododendron formosum_ at the low elevation of 2000 feet. A most
splendid fern, _Dipteris Wallichii,_ is abundant, with the dwarf
Phoenix palm and _Cycas pectinata._