Himalayan Journals, vol 2 by J. D. Hooker (android pdf ebook reader TXT) 📕

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.

Wild animals are very abundant here, though extremely rare on the

higher part of the Khasia range; tigers, however, and bears, ascend to Nunklow. We saw troops of wild dogs ("Kuleam," Khas.), deer, and immense quantities of the droppings of the wild elephant; an animal considered in Assam dangerous to meet, whereas in other parts of

India it is not dreaded till provoked. There is, however, no

quadruped that varies more in its native state than this: the Ceylon kind differs from the Indian in the larger size and short tusks, and an experienced judge at Calcutta will tell at once whether the newly caught elephant is from Assam, Silhet, Cuttack, Nepal, or Chittagong.

Some of the differences, in size, roundness of shoulders and back,

quantity of hair, length of limb, and shape of head, are very marked; and their dispositions are equally various.

The lowest rocks seen are at a considerable distance down the

Bor-panee; they are friable sandstones that strike uniformly with the gneiss. From the bridge upwards the rocks are all gneiss, alternating with chert and quartz. The Nunklow spur is covered with enormous

rounded blocks of syenite, reposing on clay or on one another.

These do not descend the hill, and are the remains of an extensive

formation which we could only find in situ at one spot on the road to Myrung (see earlier), but which must have been of immense

thickness.* [The tendency of many volcanic rocks to decompose in

spheres is very well known: it is conspicuous in the black basalts

north of Edinburgh, but I do not know any instance equal to this of Nunklow, for the extent of decomposition and dimensions of the

resulting spheres.] One block within ten yards of the bungalow door was fifteen feet long, six high, and eight broad; it appeared half

buried, and was rapidly decomposing from the action of the rain.

Close by, to the westward, in walking amongst the masses we were

reminded of a moraine of most gigantic sized blocks; one which I

measured was forty feet long and eleven above the ground; its edges were rounded, and its surface flaked off in pieces a foot broad and a quarter of an inch thick. Trees and brushwood often conceal the

spaces between these fragments, and afford dens for bears and

leopards, into which man cannot follow them.

Sitting in the cool evenings on one of these great blocks, and

watching the Himalayan glaciers glowing with the rays of sunset,

appearing to change in form and