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.—Assam is a fertile series of valleys, with the great channel of the Brahmaputra (literally, the Son of Brahma) flowing down its middle, and an infinite number of tributaries and water-courses pouring into it from the mountains on either side. The Brahma putra spreads out in a sheet of water several miles broad during the rainy season, and in its course through Assam forms a number of islands in its bed. Rising in the Thibetan plateau, far to the north of the Himalayas, and skirting round their eastern passes, not far from the Yang- tse-kiang and the great river of Cambodia, it enters Assam by a series of waterfalls and rapids, amid vast boulders and accumulations of rocks. The gorge, situated in Lak- himpur district, through which the southernmost branch of the Brahmaputra enters, has from time immemorial been held in reverence by the Hindus. It is called the Brahma- kunda or Parasuramkunda ; and although the journey to it is both difficult and dangerous, it is annually visited by thousands of devotees. After a rapid course westwards down the whole length of the Assam valley, the Brahma putra turns sharply to the south, spreading itself over the alluvial districts of the Bengal delta, and, after several changes of name, ends its course of 1800 miles in the Bay of Bengal. Its first tributaries in Assam, after crossing the frontier, are the Kundil and the Digaru, flowing from the Mishmi hills on the north, and the Tengapani and Nawii Billing, which take their rise on the Sirigpho hills to the south-east. Shortly afterwards it receives the Dibang, flowing from the north-cast ; but its principal confluent is the Dihang, which, deriving its origin, under the name of the Sanpu, from a spot in the vicinity of the source of the Satlej, flows in a direction precisely opposite to that river, and traversing the table-land of Thibet, at the back of the great Himalaya range, falls into the Brahma putra in 27 48 N. lat., 9526 E. long., after a course of nearly 1000 miles. Doubts were long entertained whether the Dihang could be justly regarded as the continuation of the Sanpu ; these, however, have been gradually removed by the additional testimony of more recent notices ; and as it is now ascertained that the last-named river does not flow into the Irawadi, it appears impossible to account for its course to the sea, except by presuming it to dis charge its waters into the Brahmaputra through the channel of the Dihang. Below the confluence, the united stream flows in a south-westerly direction, forming the boundary between the districts of Lakhimpur and Darang, situated on its northern, bank, and those of Sadiyd, Sibsagar, and ISTaogAon on the south ; and finally bisecting K^mrdp, it