Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society. Vol. 13, no. 3.

Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society. Vol. 13, no. 3. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    117/128 (page 247)
    Jiately jcneath the Tatkoi, is an open sheet of water, perhaps three miles long, and exceeding a mile in breadth, called Nongyang * by the Singfoos. rl he lake stretches nearly from east to west. It contains a triangular-shaped island near its south-east extremity, where its waters are drained off by a small stream called Loglai, which running southwards, falls into the Sooroong, and this latter river falls into the Denai, or Kyendweu of the maps. The Kyendwen, it is well known, falls into the Irrawaddy, or Milee, as the Singfoos call the great river below Ava. After examining this lake, and satisfying myself that its waters did run southwards through the Loglai, I returned to the top of the Patkoi and encamped there. I was anxious, if possible, to get a view of the Assam side, so as to gain some idea of the best line of road to Makoom. The nearest of the Hookoong villages are on the banks of the Sooroong, lying under a hill called Gadak, which was pointed out to me, and which appeared to be about twenty- five miles south of Nongyang as the crow flies. In the evening two Singfoos came into our camp from these Sooroong villages, and I learnt with surprise that they had slept two nights on the road since they left their homes. They had travelled up the bed of the Sooroong, and then up the Loglai. The devious course of these streams, and the difficulty of wading over shingles and boulders, must account for the slow progress made. The villages on the Sooroong, they informed me, did not number more than fifteen houses, and that very little rice would be procurable. From their vil- lages to the Denai is a two days’ march through forest. They described the country on each bank of the Denai as well cultivated and thickly populated. From the Patkoi to the Denai the path did not lie over any steep hills. The Singfoos who accompanied me had only agreed to take me as far as Nongyang, and I failed to induce them to go farther south with me. It was their busiest time of the year. The only crop they grow was being reaped, and they could not afford to lose any more time in securing it. It will be seen that the only difficulties to be encountered on the road between Assam and Hookoong are caused by the denseness of the jungle. The inter- vening country is a wilderness, consisting of a forest of many useful timber trees of immense size. Below the larger trees is a tangled mass of smaller plants, most of them climbers, twisting about the larger trees, and wrestling with each other in an intense struggle for life. The only paths by which man can move are the natural beds of rivers or mountain streams. It would he impossible to leave these channels except for the tracks made in the jungle by herds of wild elephants. Progress along such paths is very slow, and the dis- tance to be travelled very much increased, owing to the necessity of often fol- lowing the windings of the streams. The Burmese Government in former days took care that there should be a village, or rather a military settlement, every twelve or fifteen miles along the route; and it was the business of the people living at these stations to cut the jungles occasionally, and to remove fallen trees and other obstructions from the path. The route has now fallen almost entirely into disuse, on account of the posts having been one by one deserted. Since August last only three trading parties have come this way from Hookoong into Assam. Traders now usually travel by a more circuitous and very difficult path through the Naga hills, passing from one Naga village to another so as to obtain supplies. It is to be wondered at that the Namroop route should be used at all by traders, considering that each man must carry fifteen pounds weight of rice for his own consumption on the journey, besides his load of * Nong, a lake; Yong, the name of Shan chief, who held this post for the Burmese.