5. Brigg's Trace

The country lying between Gowhatty and the main axis of the Cossyah Hills, of which Shillong is the crowning height, was only known to Europeans along the Nunklow hill-path[1] (reference to Scott’s Road). This was held in such bad repute that those who ventured along it did so as fast as practicable, and considered themselves fortunate if they escaped the malarial fever which persisted throughout the year.

Brigg’s Trace[2] was the second bridle path made by the British during 1863-64 to the east of the old hill path and to the west of the present motorable road and it emerged at Marbisu, a village 19 kilometres from Shillong on the Shillong-Mawphlang Road. From here it branched to Shillong and to Laitlyngkot. Unfortunately, like Scott’s Road, Brigg’s Trace was later abandoned as well. 

Major Briggs informs us that another eastward route was known to a few Officers, and in 1862 it was recommended for adoption as the future hill road between Gowhatty and Shillong. However, he generally found it deeply imbedded in swamps and low bottoms that he recommended against its adoption.

Briggs reasoned that as both of these routes were intersected by streams flowing in opposite directions from a range of hills lying between them, and that as this range abutted on the plain close to Gowhatty, he should in all probability find that a line of road might be taken close to its watershed. From a Civil Engineering point of view, this would ensure a higher and healthier route, the absence of all large rivers, and probably afford a natural inclined plane sloping upwards to the great elevated plateau of the Cossyah Hills.

 

Although he referred to a range of hills lying between the two routes, he cautioned that it was not a peculiar feature in the aspect of the country. He observed that the whole of the space between the Cossyah Hills and the valley of Lower Assam, was crowded with a mass of rounded hills apparently detached, but in reality joined by low and narrow passes. The tops of these hills varied from 1,500 to 3,500 feet above the sea level, and their connecting links or passes, which became obligatory points to a road taken in the direction of the axis of any one of them, varied from 1,800 to 3,000 feet. The height increased as the axis neared the mass of mountains from which it had been thrown off.

The appearance of these hills when viewed from the superior range of the Cossyahs was like a tumultuous but unbroken sea, no wave rising above one normal level, but no portion absolutely smooth. Where the general elevation was below 2,500 feet, the hills were covered with dense bamboo and tall grass jungle. The sal, jamoon, gumree, and semel were the common forest trees. Above that elevation bamboo generally ceased, and, except in the bottoms, the grass was of moderate height, and a pine very similar to the Scotch fir became the ordinary forest tree. Above 3,000 feet oak became common. Interestingly, he was inclined to associate the fever level with that of the pine.

These hills, with an exceptional wall of cliffs, or granite crags exposed by the action of water at their base, were well covered with soil. This was generally of a rich red quality and possibly favourable to the growth of tea. This depth of soil presented to the Engineer fewer natural obstacles than were generally met with in the construction of hill roads. It was also of a nature which promised to preserve its form when the section of a road 24 feet wide was cut from the hill side.

Throughout this undulating mass of hills there were but few villages. They were often five or six miles apart, yet at almost every mile there were remains of former habitations. These were deserted to escape the ravages of wild elephants. The crops of hill rice, pulse, and cotton were of fine quality. The seed-bearing capsules of the cotton were the heaviest he had seen in Bengal. 

Unlike the distinctiveness of race and language which characterised the peoples of the mountains shutting out the valley of Assam from the south, the population of these lower hills were a mixture of tribes. The Garrow, Meekir, Cacharee, and Cossyah were found here all living together, and although not so powerfully made as the true Cossyah, yet the mixed race was a fine one.

They were quiet, good-natured, fond of home, and far more temperate than the inhabitants of the higher hills. They were great woodsmen, using the dhou with admirable dexterity, but were otherwise destitute of the means of waging war against the wild animals from which they suffered. As a rule, they had neither guns nor bows, and the art of snaring or trapping, so well understood by neighbouring tribes, was unknown to them. According to Briggs, this was curious because they were great admirers of flesh, and were indifferent to the kind, quality, or condition. A morsel of an elephant found dead on their hills, or a succulent puppy bought at the Bengallee haths, were equally prized delicacies.

Briggs dwelt at length on the description of the country between Gowhatty and the Cossyah Hills proper, because it was a region unknown to Europeans till then. He goes on to describe a section of the entire line of road from the Berhampooter river at Gowhatty to the Soormah river at Sylhet. The heights were taken by Aneroid Barometer and compared with the standard in the Surveyor-General's Office in Calcutta. In many places the jungle was so dense that the line could not have been measured without a clearing being made first. 

This would have delayed Briggs far longer than my other duties. Briggs mentions that a map on a scale of 4 inches to the mile showing this line of road and all new roads being constructed or surveyed within the circle, was then under preparation. In the meanwhile the Cossyah and Jynteah Hill map would serve the purpose for his Report.

After passing through six and a half miles of the Assam plains to the south of Gowhatty, the line ascended 950 feet, at a gradient of 1 foot in 25 for four and a half miles, with a level break of half a mile. The line then descended 250 feet to the Gorbungah Valley, which lay between the last high Station and the Kukra Seel Pass. This descent was easily negotiated at a gradient of 1 foot in 40. 

The choice lay between winding for six miles up and down a lateral valley, or introducing the easy gradient of 1 in 40 for a mile and a half down and a mile and a half up to the Kukra Seel Pass, and the latter course was preferred. For the same reason the abnormal descents at the 22nd mile, the 36th mile, and the 49th mile, became necessary to avoid an increase of distance of some eighteen miles.

After a short descent of 1 in 33 from the Kukra Seel Pass the line proceeded at a very easy gradient through long flat valleys to the Oomur Nuddee. On either side were hills covered with the unrivalled forest growth of Assam, and the soil was excellent for growing tea. The line crossed several small streams, tributaries of the Oomur, which was crossed at a spot easily bridged, where its crystal stream dashed over a ledge of rocks. This site was selected for the first Inspection Bungalow on this route. The valley was well stocked with magnificent sal trees, and being at a general elevation of more than a thousand feet, was always comparatively cool.

Between the Oomur and the Amtenah streams, a rise of 150 feet at 1 foot in 33, and a corresponding descent was necessary to cross a small intervening range on which cotton and hill rice were cultivated. The Amtenah would require a bridge of 70 feet span, the largest on the whole line of road until the Sylhet Plain is reached.

From the Amtenah the line recovered the watershed by ascending for 3 miles, at a gradient of 1 in 33, to the obligatory pass above Punkir village. It passed through rich red soil covered with forest presenting no difficulties. Here it met the head of a long flat valley which extended down to the old Nunklow road (Scott’s Road) near Nowgong (not the present day town in central Assam), and which some twenty years previously (about 1846) was covered with cultivation. However, wild elephants forced the villagers to abandon it. Now that the road would require large clearings, its re-cultivation was required. 

Crossing the head of this valley to a series of obligatory points on the watershed line, it passed along them at easy gradients and level spaces until it struck the Oomloor river near its source close to the village of Palliar. Here, at 2,200 feet above the sea level, the first pines appeared, and from this the natural growth changed from dense bamboo jungle and lofty grass to comparatively low grass, and an entire absence of bamboo and other plants characteristic of the Assam jungles. Two miles beyond Palliar, at an elevation of 2,500 feet, the second Inspection Bungalow from Gowhatty was being built. Briggs believed the spot would prove generally healthy and above the limit of the fever belt.

Having reached 3,000 feet Briggs was obliged to descend at 1 foot in 60 and 1 in 100 to the next obligatory point on the watershed, (elevation 2,772 feet) from which the road run up easily to the crossing of the Putran stream, the eastern tributary of the great Borpanee river (this is the Khri river) which flows under Nunklow. It would require a bridge of 65 feet. The descent was through beautiful glades, bounded by grassy knolls, on which magnificent red barked pine trees clustered in groups, and according to Briggs, were more pleasing to the eye than art could ever have devised. If this mass of swelling uplands proved as healthy as the appearance of the few inhabitants promised,  Briggs boldly predicted that “another wide field in the waste garden of Assam lies ready to repay the industry of the English settler.”

The ascent from the Putran stream to the first terrace of the Cossyah Hills proper, formed the longest incline on the road, at a gradient nearly approaching 4 feet in 100, which the Government was pleased to fix at his suggestion as the maximum. The incline varied from 1 in 33 to 1 in 25 and was twelve miles in length. To have eased the gradient would have added to the length of the road, which Briggs thought objectionable. These 12 miles lay through a magnificent forest of pines, many of which attained a great size. Although there were some stiff rocky banks to be cut into for the full section of the road, yet, except at one spot, there were no continuous line of cliffs. The exception was where the line cut a wall of granite about 200 feet in length, at 40 feet from its top. 

In two places narrow spurs would be cut down 30 feet, and at the top of the pass there would be 20 feet taken off its height. Here, at an elevation of 5,222 feet, the third Inspection Bungalow would be built. 

The two previous Inspection Bungalows referred to were being built in the ordinary Assam style of thatched roof on posts, with bamboo mat walls and flooring, costing about Rs. 250 each. However, this would not do at this elevation for the third Inspection Bungalow. Good rubble stone walls, chimnies, and planked flooring were required, and it was hoped that the Government would sanction Rs. 1,500 for each Bungalow in the Cossyah Hills, as it was impossible for the Road Officers to live in tents during the greater part of the year without losing their health. Besides it was cheaper to provide weather-tight accommodation than to have them frequently unfitted for duty through sickness.

After reaching the top of the pass, which Briggs prefers to call Nongrim-chitla (after the name of the village 2 miles away), the traveller enters upon a country of long flat valleys and bare ridges, grim and sterile in appearance during winter, from the almost total absence of trees, but during spring and summer spread with a richly tinted carpet of wild flowers and berries. Briggs provides a window to the colonial mind of the time. He noticed that where there was good soil, hundreds of acres of potatoes grew luxuriantly, proving the fitness of the climate for European crops. He also observed the cattle’s size and sleekness, and speculated the weight and quality of the beef they might produce if stall-fed in winter with the turnip, which the potato land would undoubtedly supply.

The flat valley country extended, with only one interruption, for 10 miles in the direction of the line of road, and widened out to great breadth in the neighbourhood of the village of Marpana, stretching up on the broad flank of Dinghai, which rolled up its massive outline in the eastern horizon to a height only 370 feet less than Shillong. The one interruption referred to was the second terrace of the Cossyah upper plateau, the rise was from 5,200 feet to 5,600 feet. 

Under the village of Marpana, the road shot through a chasm formed by the Marpana river, which presented one of the most picturesque parts of the line. The river rushed from one flat valley to the next, through a narrow opening between two ranges of cliffs, so narrow that it was not seen until the gorge was entered. From the cliff on the left bank the road would be cut, crossing the river where it turned sharply to the east by a bridge of about 50 feet span. It then gently descended to a highly cultivated valley, which it first touched, and then slipped over a low pass into another fine valley leading to the Kuksee Nullah.

Briggs thought the Kuksee was as lovely as a Devon brook, with its clear deep pools and sparkling runs, its mossy banks glowing with wild flowers and the bright strawberry. Here and there was a rugged rock to force its calmer beauties into stronger contrast. These bounded the last of the open valleys north of the "Wailing Waters," the rock-bound and terrible Oomeeam. Through thickets of oak, birch, and rhododendron, the road gradually ascended to a pass 200 feet above the Kuksee, from where it wound down to the Oomeeam, crossing the river just before it plunged into an abyss more than 1,000 feet deep. In the ascent, a chasm of 60 feet had to be bridged, and in the descent about one quarter of a mile of very compact slate had to be cut through.

From the Oomeeam, the line ascended at first at a gradient of 1 foot in 30 along the very precipitous hillside which sloped down to the river. Here the excavations would be heavy for about a mile, but the rock was not compact, and therefore would offer no great impediment to the workers. Near the village of Marbeesoo the line joined the then existing road from Moflong to Shillong, about 3 miles distant from the western boundary of Shillong. At this point, after crossing a tributary of the Oomeeam, a fertile valley was followed up to the west flank of the Shillong mountain (Shillong Peak), the gradient being 1 in 55 and the distance 4 miles.

Having described the line as far as Shillong, Briggs proceeded to describe the work that had already been done between Shillong and Gowhatty, including the cost and the immediate requirements. He also stressed the importance of the project for the extension of the line of road to the Sylhet Plain. He was of the view that without this extension, the project would be a half measure, and its great political and social advantages would remain undeveloped. He agreed with the Civil Authorities that without a cart road to Sylhet, it would be impossible to keep Shillong supplied with ordinary provisions.

At the time that the article was written in 1866, it was just over a year since he commenced exploring the country to the south of Gowhatty. At that stage the road (with the exception of a break of about 10 miles) was open for ponies or laden mules. Those 10 miles were expected to be completed by the time the Report was in the hands of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal (Sir Cecil Beadon at that time). There were narrow places where little could be done without blasting, however, neither tools nor powder had been sent from Calcutta.

Briggs suffered from the lack of Officers and subordinates generally and the labour shortage had been a great source of trouble and anxiety to him. It was not entirely due to the paucity of inhabitants in the country, a good deal was due to the want of Assistants and subordinates. Had they been available, the work could have been commenced at many different places, drawing labour from the neighbourhood. In reality, the labour could not be induced to move to more distant parts of the line.

The total expenditure so far on the road was Rs. 14,655, and over 70 miles of road was open to a minimum of 5 feet width. This sum included all expenses in surveying and laying out the first trial lines; in carefully surveying for estimates 30 miles of finished bridle road; a mile and a half of very heavy earthwork in the Gowhatty Plain, where the road passed through inundated ground; in building temporary timber and bamboo bridges over every stream; in clearing jungle for 50 feet on each side of road for 25 miles; in building one Inspection Bungalow and commencing another; in building numerous sheds for tools and hutting coolies; and in carrying out provisions for them, and establishments generally.

On the whole, the average cost had been close to Rs. 200 per mile, which included balances in hand of disbursers and contractors. There was considerable delay due to the necessity of acquiring all requisite stores, provisions, and tools from Gowhatty. This transportation requirement drew a number of labourers from road work, and disgusted many more who objected to be made porters of. Briggs was then looking to purchase some mules, which was expected to be a source of relief to all parties. He was also establishing shops for grain near all the Inspection Bungalows, so that soon the road could be travelled without inconvenience or hardship.

Briggs then goes on to describe the line he had selected for the descent from Shillong to the Sylhet Plain, which differed somewhat from the line he examined in 1862. The highest point reached by the road at Shillong was 6,088 feet (by Aneroid Barometer) above sea level. The Sylhet Plain was 52 feet by the same instrument. The base required for such a descent at a continued gradient of 3 feet in 100 was nearly 36 miles. The intervening valley of the Bogopanee river (this is most probably the Umiam-Mawphlang river which rises on the southern slopes of the Shillong Peak near a village called Pamlakrai near Smit) and the necessity of keeping as near as possible to the watershed line, to avoid difficulties which the well known precipitous walls lining the southern face of the Cossyah range presented, obliged him to increase this base to 53 miles. But this was no drawback to the excellence of the line, because an unbroken ascent of 3 feet in a 100, for so great a distance would have been very severe upon draught cattle, and the selected line in no place proceeded very much out of its true direction.

The difficulty was to find a base of sufficient length which did not run into the great natural bastions of sandstone mentioned above. The other challenge was to avoid zig-zags, those most objectionable make-shift arrangements for avoiding difficulties in hill roads. This was the main objection he found to the line explored in 1862, when he had come to lay it out.

Briggs first of all examined two lines running through Cherra Poonjee (he wanted to include Cherra to the line of road). One was to the westward by Chelah, the other, taking the line projected by Lieutenant Yule (then Colonel Yule, C.B.) in 1842, for the incline from the coal mines to the plain. Briggs found that both led through very difficult ground, and would have entailed many zig-zags. Besides, Cherra stood immediately overlooking the plains at a height of 4,400 feet above them; such a difference of level would have required a base of at least 22 miles, whereas the distance by footpath was not above 8 miles. 

This would not only have been a highly unpopular feature in the road, but would in reality have considerably increased the distance from Shillong to the plains. The country between Shillong and Cherra undulated too steeply for a cart road upon the line of the present path, and this would have necessitated several inclines quite out of the true direction, thereby considerably lengthening the distance beyond what it was at present.

Briggs then tried the line which he had explored in 1862 through Lailankhote, descending from the gorge by the stream which flowed southward towards Ponduah, but this led through such ground that for miles he could not obtain even footing. To explore the line for a hill road when the glens and ridges were covered with jungle, and to lay it out at a restricted gradient, were two such different operations that it was almost impossible to estimate by ordinary exploration either distances or difficulties.

Briggs lastly tried a line through Lailankhote down the long spur passing Nonkredem, the residence of the Rajah of Khyrim, and abutting on the Sylhet Plain at Lukhet. Here he found a possible base line through a country generally favourable (with the exception of 4 miles near Nonkredem), reaching the plain within 20 miles of the station of Sylhet.

Briggs had previously suggested to the authorities that the southern terminus of the road should be at Chattuck, because that was the highest point on the Soormah river that steamers could reach at all seasons of the year. It had since been pointed out to him that Chattuck was no base from which supplies for Shillong could be drawn, and that unless easy communication was established with Sylhet, there would be great risk of the troops and residents at Shillong being hard pressed for provisions. Again it had occurred to him that Shillong was looked to as the great sanatarium for the hundreds of European Planters who would before long overspread Cachar and Sylhet. Therefore it was appropriate that the southern approach to it should be from a central point, such as the town of Sylhet.

In his letter of 9 December 1862, he made an error as to the probable distance from Gowhatty to Chattuck, which he stated as about 104 miles. The almost impenetrable mass of jungle which covered a portion of the hills between the Cossyah range and Gowhatty prevented Briggs seeing much of the nature of the contour. His endeavours to reduce the general gradient to a rate not exceeding 1 in 30 had considerably added to the distance, which would now be, from Gowhatty to Sylhet, 154 miles. The distance by the old mountain road via Cherra Poonjee was 142 miles. Considering that the first was to be a cart road with no gradient exceeding 1 in 25, and the second was laid out without reference to gradients at all, except that at which a pony could climb, the result was more favourable than that ordinarily obtained in hill roads. 

Briggs then goes on to examine in detail the line adopted from Shillong to Sylhet, of which about 4 miles in the valley of the Bogapanee was open to 18 feet in width, and the rest only laid out. Leaving the western shoulder of Shillong at 6,088 feet, the descent of 600 feet to the torrent of the Bogapanee was effected at a gradient of 1 foot in 33 for 4 miles. The hills were bare and covered with short grass. The geological formation presented few difficulties. This was the chief iron region of the Cossyah Hills, and large quantities were continually being taken to Lukhet to barter for grain and the produce of the plains. The projected road would assist this traffic greatly.

The erection of a stone bridge over the Bogapanee with timber platform was commenced in 1865, but a great flood swept away the centre pier before it was even half built up, and a fresh project, avoiding any intermediate pier, was then under preparation. Four miles further down this river, an iron suspension bridge was built about 1844, but was swept away by an extraordinary flood six years later. Briggs believed an entirely stone bridge of one opening of 96 feet span would prove the best structure for this very troublesome torrent.

After a mile and a half of ascent through huge boulders of granite, the road reached Lailankhote, where it crossed the Cherra Poonjee and Jowai road. The ascent was easy, and with proper blasting tools, the formation of the roadway would not be difficult. From the Lailankhote plateau commenced the steady descent to the Sylhet Plain, unbroken, except by a few level portions, and it was between Lailankhote and Nonkredem where the only real difficulties of the line were met with. The hill sides there were very steep, and the rock line near the surface. 

The first difficulties were caused by a sudden break or wall in the spur of 460 feet in depth. This obliged Briggs to cut the road out of the steep hill side facing the east, which was extremely rocky and precipitious. There was no other available line, and so it had to be negotiated. After reaching the bottom of this wall at an obligatory point called Roloo, the line skirted a peculiarly isolated hill and passed on the watershed line, following it to Nonkredem. In several places it was nothing but rock forming narrow sharp ridges, and broad enough only for a very bad mountain path. 

These sharp ridges would have to be cut down until a sufficient width was obtained for the road. Briggs mentioned in his letter that it was scarcely possible to have all this rock excavation effected without the assistance of a Company of Sappers, or at least a body of men accustomed to blasting operations. Briggs had taught a few men here and there, but he could testify from long experience in such operations, that a mass of excavation in rock could only be successfully accomplished by the concentration of a considerable force worked in a systematic manner.

After passing Nonkredem the line returned to the sandstone formation, affording easy ground for a hill road to pass over grass slopes broken here and there with oak woods. On the opposite hill, Cherra Poonjee could be easily seen, but between it and the line lay a tremendous chasm, 8 miles in width and 4,000 feet in depth. The same easy ground extended the whole way down till within 1,000 feet above the Sylhet Plains. Occasionally rocks were met with, but no extensive cliffs. The hillsides were generally pretty clear of jungle, and nothing could be more favourable for a line of hill road. At Tunginath, 4,400 feet above the sea level, the coal seams described by Mr. Oldham (Richard Dixon Oldham of the Geological Survey of India, Calcutta) were passed. The distance to them by road from the plains would be probably 25 miles.

At 1,000 feet above the plains commenced dense plantations of areca, jack, and orange trees, for which the south face of the Cossyah and Jynteah Hills was famous. They grew on very little depth of soil and over rough rocky ground. The road would be expensive throughout these 5 miles of descent, but not more than ordinarily so in hill road work. There would be a good deal to pay for compensation for damage done to the plantations, probably about Rs. 3,000 per mile, or Rs. 15,000 in all. It was here that Brigg’s description of the hill portion of the road ceases.

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[1]The Library of the University of Michigan, Professional Papers on Indian Engineering, Volume 3, 1866; No. CVII, Roads In Assam (2^nd Article); Roads on the Road from Gowhatty to the Sylhet River, by Major D. Briggs, Superintendent of Works in Assam, Pages 164-176.

[2]A beaten trail, path or a track, especially through wild or open territory, made by the regular passage of people, animals, or vehicles.