view, but I could see the North Cachar hills at a distance of seventy miles or more. According to Sir J. Hooker, the visible horizon of the observer from this point encloses an area of fully 30,000 square miles, which is as great as that of Ireland. It extends from the Tippera hills on the south, 100 miles distant, and the delta of the Ganges 120 miles away on the south¬ west, over the Garo hills and the Assam valley to the Himalayas on the north and north-east. Some of the peaks in this range, which occupy 60 degrees of the horizon and extend over 250 miles, are visible at a distance of 220 miles from Shillong. But though the view is such an extraordinarily wide one, I do not think it could compare in grandeur or interest with many much more restricted views which are constantly before one in Sikkim.
The vegetation of these elevated downs is very peculiar and unlike anything I have seen in the Himalayas; it is composed of coarse wiry grasses, which do not form a turf, but are mingled with numerous showy herbaceous plants and shrubs in the hollows. A Primula, which in Sikkim is only found at 10,000 to 12,000 feet, occurs in wet places. Numerous terrestrial orchids, of which Habenaria pectinata, Platanthera Manni, Satyrium Nepalense and Aceras angustifolia are the commonest, three or four showy Balsams, an Anthericum, a dwarf Roscœa like R. purpurea, a splendid yellow-flowered plant allied to Pedicularis (Centranthera grandiflora), and many others were gathered. Numerous small butterflies, Terias, Cœla, T. Verrata, Lycilna maka, L. dipora and L. chenelli, with small Satyridæ such as Yphthima nareda and Y. sakra, were flying about the downs. Three large species of fritillaries, Argynnis Childrens, A. rudra and A. niphe, were constantly seen driving along before the wind which generally blows up there; but birds, with the exception of a few pipits, grass warblers and green pigeons which came in flocks to feed in the adjacent patch of forest, were wonderfully scarce,
I soon discovered, however, that in the little wood on the Peak and in the wooded glens which descend from the ridge towards Shillong, there were very many rare and interesting forest-loving species of birds, insects and plants; and though it was very difficult to penetrate on account of the want of paths, I stuck to this ground as the best place for collecting during my stay at Shillong. The trees in these little woods and glens are not, as a rule, large, and consist mainly of evergreen species of oak, laurel, magnolia, Aralia, wild cinnamon and others, many of which are densely covered with Cœlogyne, Pleione and other orchids and climbing plants. The undergrowth is a dense thicket of Bœhmeria and other nettles. I noticed a dwarf bamboo which had recently seeded and died down, a climbing yellow-flowered Dicentra Thalictrifolia, and on the skirts of the woods were numerous trees of rhododendron and of Daphne Wallichii whose sweet-scented white flowers were now in perfection. Many curioua herbaceous plants also occur on the skirt of the woods, such as Lilium giganteum, the tall blue-flowered Delphinium altissimum, the curious red-berried Pentapanax Pseudo-ginseng, and a graceful rue, Thalictrum Javanicum.
In the depths of the shady ravines numerous rare ferns were found with species of Polygonatum, Paris polyphylla, and other Liliaceæ, whilst
