December 31st.—­Up to this morning we remained at Dum Dummia, and had the Booteas alone been consulted, we should have remained there till to-morrow.  It is a very uninteresting place, the country consisting of one extensive plain, diversified only by trees wherever there are villages.  There is a good deal of cultivation, chiefly however, of rice; some sugarcane is visible, but it is of inferior quality, and evidently not sufficiently watered.  Sursoo is considerably cultivated.  The river Noa Nuddee is about seventy yards wide, with a stream of three miles an hour; it is full of sand-banks and of quicksands, and is crossed with great difficulty on elephants; by men it is easily fordable.  The only shooting about the place is Floriken, which are very abundant, ten or twelve being seen in one day.

We left for Hazareegoung, a Bootea-Assam village to the north.  We passed through a similar open country not much cultivated, but overrun with grassy vegetation.  The path was of the ordinary description, and not kept at all cleared:  crossed a small stream twice, with a pebbly bed and sub-rapids, a sure indication of approaching the hills.  These, in their lower portion, have a very barren appearance, but this may arise from the cultivated patches:  land-slips are of very frequent occurrence.

The grasses of the enormous plains, so prevalent every where in this direction, are Kagaia, Megala, Vollookher, Saccharum spontaneum, this is soft grass, and affords an excellent cover for game, Cymbopogon hirsutum, which is more common than the C. arundinaceum, Erianthus, Airoides, Rottboellia exaltata, Arundo, (?) Anatherum muricatum, Apluda, Trizania cilearis, is common in the old rice khets.

Among these occur a tall Knoxia, Plectranthus sudyensis, and P. uncinatus.

I observed Vareca, Grislea, about Dum Dummia.  Elytrophorus is common in rice khets.

Towards Hazareegoung we came on a high plain, covered principally with S. spontaneum.  Among this occurred Lactuioides, Premna herbacea, Grewia, with here and there Pterygodium.  I observe here Bootea bamboo baskets made water-proof by caoutchouc; this is a practice much adopted by the Booteas:  and the trees are here.  The large coloured stipulae are peculiar to the young shoots cultivated, they are often a span long.  The young fruit is enveloped by three large coloured scales, which originate from the annuliform base; this is hence a peduncle, not a bracte, as I before supposed.

January 1st, 1838.—­Halted.

January 2nd.—­Marched to Ghoorgoung, a small village, eight miles from Hazareegoung and nearly due north.  We crossed similar grassy tracts:  the country gradually rising as we approached the hills.

Very little cultivation occurred.  Crossed the Mutunga, now dry, but the breadth testifies to its being a large stream in the rains, as the boulders do to its being a violent one.  The same plants continue; small jungle or wood composed of Simool.  Trophis aspera, Cassia fistula, Bauhinia, Butea scandens, Byttneria, underwood of Eranthemum, and another Acanthacea.