Himalayan Journals, vol 2 by J. D. Hooker (great reads TXT) 📖

dimensions with the falling shadows, it was impossible to refrain from speculating on the possibility of these great boulders heaped on the Himalayan-ward face of the Khasia range, having been transported hither by ice at some former period; especially as the Mont Blanc granite, in crossing the lake of Geneva to the Jura, must have performed a hardly less wonderful ice journey: but this hypothesis is clearly untenable; and unparalleled in our

experience as the results appear, if attributed to denudation and

weathering alone, we are yet compelled to refer them to these causes.

The further we travel, and the longer we study, the more positive

becomes the conviction that the part played by these great agents in sculpturing the surface of our planet, is as yet but half recognised.

We returned on the 7th of August to Churra, where we employed

ourselves during the rest of the month in collecting and studying the plants of the neighbourhood. We hired a large and good bungalow, in which three immense coal fires* [This coal is excellent for many

purposes. We found it generally used by the Assam steamers, and were informed on board that in which we traversed the Sunderbunds, some

months afterwards, that her furnaces consumed 729 lbs. per hour;

whereas the consumption of English coal was 800 lbs., of Burdwan coal 8401bs., and of Assam 900 lbs.] were kept up for drying plants and

papers, and fifteen men were always employed, some in changing, and some in collecting, from morning till night. The coal was procured

within a mile of our door, and cost about six shillings a month; it was of the finest quality, and gave great heat and few ashes.

Torrents of rain descended almost daily, twelve inches in as many

hours being frequently registered; and we remarked that it was

impossible to judge of the quantity by estimation, an apparent deluge sometimes proving much less in amount than much lighter but steadier falls; hence the greatest fall is probably that in which the drops

are moderately large; very close together, and which pass through a saturated atmosphere. The temperature of the rain here and elsewhere in India was always a degree or two below that of the air.

Though the temperature in August rose to 75 degrees, we never felt a fire oppressive, owing to the constant damp, and absence of sun.

The latter, when it broke through the clouds, shone powerfully,

raising the thermometer 20 degrees and 30 degrees in as many minutes.

On such occasions, hot blasts of damp wind ascend the valleys, and

impinge suddenly against different houses on the flat, giving rise to extraordinary differences between the mean daily temperatures of

places not half a mile apart.

On the 4th of September we started for the village of Chela, which

lies west from Churra, at the embouchure of the Boga-panee on the

Jheels. The path runs by Mamloo, and down the spur to the Jasper hill (see chapter xxviii): the vegetation all along is very tropical, and pepper, ginger, maize, and Betel palm, are cultivated around small

cottages, which are only distinguishable in the forest by their

yellow thatch of dry Calamus (Rattan) leaves. From Jasper hill a

very steep ridge leads to another, called Lisouplang, which is

hardly so high as Mamloo; the rocks are the same sandstone, with

fragments of coal, and remains of the limestone formation capping it.

Hot gusts of wind blow up the valleys, alternating with clouds and

mists, and it is curious to watch the effects of the latter in

stilling the voices of insects (Cicadas) and birds. Common crows and vultures haunt the villages, but these, and all other large birds,

are very rare in the Khasia. A very few hawks are occasionally seen, also sparrows and kingfishers, and I once heard a cuckoo; pheasants are sometimes shot, but we never saw any. Kites become numerous after the rains, and are regarded as a sign of their cessation.

More remarkable than the rarity of birds is the absence of all

animals except domestic rats, as a more suitable country for hares

and rabbits could not be found. Reptiles, and especially Colubridae, are very common in the Khasia mountains, and I procured sixteen

species and many specimens. The natives repeatedly assured us that

these were all harmless, and Dr. Gray, who has kindly examined all my snakes, informs me of the remarkable fact (alluded to in a note in

chapter xviii), that whereas none of these are poisonous, four out of the eleven species which I found in Sikkim are so. One of the Khasia blind-worms (a new species) belongs to a truly American genus

(Ophisaurus), a fact as important as is that of the Sikkim skink

and Agama being also American forms.

Arundina, a beautiful purple grassy-leaved orchid, was abundantly in flower on the hill-top, and the great white swallow-tailed moth

(Saturnia Atlas) was extremely common, with tropical butterflies

and other insects. The curious leaf-insect (Mantis) was very

abundant on the orange trees, on the leaves of which the natives

believe it to feed; nor indeed could we persuade some of our friends that its thin sharp jaws are unsuited for masticating leaves, and

that these and its prehensile feet indicate its predacious nature:

added to which, its singular resemblance to a leaf is no less a

provision against its being discovered by its enemies, than an aid in deceiving its prey.

We descended rapidly for many miles through beautiful rocky woods,

with villages nestling amongst groves of banana and trellised

climbers; and from the brow of a hill looked down upon a slope

covered with vegetation and huts, which formed the mart of Chela, and below which the Boga-panee flowed in a deep gorge. The view was a

very striking one: owing to the steepness of the valley below our

feet, the roofs alone of the cottages were visible, from which

ascended the sounds and smells of a dense native population, and to which there appeared to be no way of descending. The opposite side

rose precipitously in lofty table-topped mountains, and the river was studded with canoes.

The descent was fully 800 feet, on a slope averaging 25 degrees to 35

degrees. The cottages were placed close together, each within a

little bamboo enclosure, eight to ten yards deep; and no two were on the same level. Each was built against a perpendicular wall which

supported a cutting in the bank behind; and a similar wall descended in front of it, forming the back of the compartment in which the

cottage next below it was erected. The houses were often raised on

platforms, and some had balconies in front, which overhung the

cottage below. All were mere hovels of wattle or mud, with very

high-pitched roofs: stone tanks resembling fonts, urns, coffins, and sarcophagi, were placed near the better houses, and blocks of stone were scattered everywhere.

We descended from hovel to hovel, alternately along the gravelled

flat of each enclosure, and perpendicularly down steps cut in the

sandstone or let into the walls. I counted 800 houses from the river, and there must be many more: the inhabitants are Bengalees and

Khasias, and perhaps amount to 3000 or 4000; but this is a very

vague estimate.

Illustration--CHELA VILLAGE.

We lodged in a curious house, consisting of one apartment, twenty

feet long, and five high, raised thirty feet upon bamboos: the walls were of platted bamboo matting, fastened to strong wooden beams, and one side opened on a balcony that overhung the river. The entrance

was an oval aperture reached by a ladder, and closed by folding-doors that turned on wooden pivots. The roof was supported by tressels of great thickness, and like the rest of the woodwork, was morticed, no nails being used throughout the building. The floor was of split

bamboos laid side by side.

We ascended the Boga-panee in canoes, each formed of a hollowed trunk fifty feet long and four broad; we could not, however, proceed far, on account of the rapids. The rocks in its bed are limestone, but a great bluff cliff of sandy conglomerate (strike east-south-east and dip south-south-west 70 degrees), several hundred feet high, rises on the east bank close above the village, above which occurs

amygdaloidal basalt. The pebbles in the river (which was seventy

yards broad, and turbid) were of slate, basalt, sandstone, and

syenite: on the opposite bank were sandstones over-lain by limestone, both dipping to the southward.

Beautiful palms, especially Caryota urens (by far the handsomest in India), and groves of betel-nut bordered the river, with oranges,

lemons, and citrons; intermixed with feathery bamboos,

horizontally-branched acacias, oaks, with pale red young leaves, and deep green foliaged figs. Prickly rattans and Plectocomia climbed amongst these, their enormous plumes of foliage upborne by the matted branches of the trees, and their arrowy tops shooting high above the forest.

After staying three days at Chela, we descended the stream in canoes, shooting over pebbly rapids, and amongst rocks of limestone,

water-worn into fantastic shapes, till we at last found ourselves

gliding gently along the still canals of the Jheels. Many of these

rapids are so far artificial, that they are enclosed by gravel banks, six feet high, which, by confining the waters, give them depth; but, Chela being hardly above the level of the sea, their fall is very

trifling. We proceeded across the Jheels* [The common water-plants of the Jheels are Vallisneria serrata, Damasonium, 2 Myriophylla, 2

Villarsiae, Trapa, blue, white, purple and scarlet water-lilies,

Hydrilla, Utricularia, Limnophila, Azolla, Salvinia, Ceratopteris,

and floating grasses.] to Chattuc, and then north again to Pundua,

and so to Churra.

Having pretty well exhausted the botany of Churra, Dr. Thomson and I started on the 13th of September for the eastern part of the Khasia and Jyntea mountains. On the Kala-panee road,* [The Pea-violet

(Crotalaria occulta) was very common by the road-side, and

smelt deliciously of violets: the English name suggests the

appearance of the flower, for which and for its fragrance it is well worth cultivation.] which we followed, we passed crowds of market

people, laden with dried fish in a half-putrid state, which scented the air for many yards: they were chiefly carp, caught and dried at the foot of the hills. Large parties were bringing down baskets of

bird-cherries, cinnamon-bark, iron, pine planks, fire-wood, and

potatoes. Of these, the bird-cherries (like damsons) are made into an excellent preserve by the English residents, who also make capital

cherry-brandy of them: the trade in cinnamon is of recent

introduction, and is much encouraged by the Inglis family, to whose exertions these people are so greatly indebted; the cinnamon is the peeled bark of a small species of Cinnamomum allied to that of

Ceylon, and though inferior in flavour and mucilaginous (like

cassia), finds a ready market at Calcutta. It has been used to

adulterate the Ceylon cinnamon; and an extensive fraud was attempted by some Europeans at Calcutta, who sent boxes of this, with a top

layer of the genuine, to England. The smell of the cinnamon loads was as fragrant as that of the fish was offensive.

The road from Kala-panee bungalow strikes off north-easterly, and

rounds the head of the deep valley to the east of Churra; it then

crosses the head-waters of the Kala-panee river, still a clear

stream, the bed of which is comparatively superficial: the rocks

consist of a little basalt and much sandstone, striking east by

north, and dipping north by west. The Boga-panee is next reached,

flowing in a shallow valley, about 200 feet below the general level of the hills, which are grassy and treeless. The river8 [The fall of this river, between this elevation (which may be considered that of its source) and Chela, is about 5,500 feet.] is thirty yards across, shallow and turbid; its bed is granite,