MY SECOND MISSION TO BHUTAN
jong, and on to the plains does not deserve the name of a road. It is nothing but a watercourse most of the way, with mere tracks along bad precipices and almost perpendicular falls, while from Dongna-jong it follows the bed of the river, and must be absolutely impassable in the rains. It was a marvel how my mules managed to get down, but with the exception of being a little footsore they were none the worse, and a few days’ rest put them in condition again. One of the reasons this part of the road is so bad is that it is on the slopes of the hills immediately above the plains which receive the full force of the southwest monsoon, probably not less than 300 inches of rain in the year, and no road, unless very carefully looked after, can stand that. It is quite useless from any utilitarian point of view, but the scenery throughout is lovely.
I was not sorry to reach Jaigaon, Mr. Trood’s comfortable bungalow, where I was most hospitably entertained, and where I stayed for three days to recruit and to transact some work with some of the tea-gardens on the frontier.
From Jaigaon I travelled west along the boundary to view land suitable for tea on the Bhutan side, and at the same time to look at some copper deposits which I hope may eventually prove profitable to Bhutan.
After inspecting them I turned back and went to the east of Bhutan to look at a coal-mine, travelling viâ Dhubri and Gauhati. By this time the different kinds of transport I had used during my tour had included, I should think, about every known sort. I had made use of coolies, elephants, mules, ponies, donkeys, yaks, oxen, carts, pony-traps, rail, and steamer, and the only available animal I had not employed was the Tibetan pack-sheep.
The hills where the coal is situated lie on the northern slope of the Himalayas, and are densely clothed with forests, but with practically no population, as it is too fever-stricken to allow of any one living there. They are, however, the haunt of almost every kind of wild animal—elephant, rhino, tiger, leopard, bison, mythun, sambur, cheetah,
235
