Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/472

444 part of India. I have already adverted to a large squirrel as peculiar to Eastern Assam, and although it is there extremely common, not an individual has been found in Lower Assam; or even beyond the northern limit of the alluvium. From thence it is probably extended to the eastward, but occurring only in valleys affording similar vegetation, and consequently possessed of similar peculiarities in structure and climate to Assam. The Simia Hylobates agilis Duvaucel a species of ape, appears from the observations of Dr. to be almost equally limited to Assam and its vicinity.

If from the lower animals we now direct our attention to the various tribes of man which compose the several nations by which Assam is surrounded, we shall find the same line of demarcation interposed between the eastern and western varieties of this species, as already observed with reference to other beings. The Singphos, or people who inhabit the Dupha mountains display in the construction of their face, the light colour of their skin, their manners and ingenuity, the almost pure Mongolian or Chinese race. The Nagas on the contrary, who in- habit the vast mountainous country extending from Assam to the frontier of Birma, incline (if I may judge from the few individuals I had an opportunity of witnessing), to the most degenerate of Caucasian Hindoos, but without a trace of their religion. Yet it is a curious fact that the Kossia tribe which occupies the western extremity of the same mountain-group, are a well marked branch of the Mongolian race, which here appears to have extended to the extreme point where the climate and natural productions cease to resemble those of the countries from whence they were derived; and thus surrounded by powerful Caucasian nations, and intercepted by the Nagas, this insulated people appear not merely to have maintained their independence; but the purity of their blood, as well as distinct customs, language, and religion.

In this way we derive from Zoology additional aid in support of those views which the sister sciences afford, and are taught to look upon the tea plant in Assam, thus associated with the natural productions of Eastern Asia, not as an alien estranged from its own climate, but as an indigenous plant neglected it is time by man, but in the full enjoyment from nature of all those peculiar conditions on which its properties will be found under proper management to depend.