58 NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
of cultivation; and to learn the most approved practice of manipulating. 
the leaves. Information upon most of these points is given in the 
author’s journal, and is the more valuable as coming from one who 
has played an important part in the establishment and development 
of Tea cultivation in Assam. 
he meteorological records given by Mr. Masters accord well with 
those derived from other sources; from them it appears that Assam 
has a very damp, foggy climate, with a considerable, but not excessive, 
range of temperature. At Dibrooghur, according to information sup- 
plied by Rev. Mr. Higgs, there are on the average one hundred and 
sixty rainy days in the year, while the annual average rainfall amounts 
to one hundred and seven inches. The lowest temperature mentioned 
in the report is, 45° in January, at sunset ; the highest, 128° in the 
sun at midday, in October. 
The general character of the soil in which the Tea-plants flourish 
seems to be that of a friable clay, containing a large proportion of sand 
and a little oxide of iron, while near the surface it is mixed with rich 
vegetable-mould,—the latter derived from the dense forest and jungle, 
which have been cleared in order to allow the cultivation to be, carried 
on. The country in the vicinity of the rivers appears to be undergoing 
great and rapid geological changes, owing to the cutting away of the 
river banks by the currents, the inundations in the wet season, and the 
formation of immense sand-banks. Of one of the latter, Mr. Masters 
writes : | 
* Dikho Mookh. This is what was called the mouth of the Daban; and 
at the very spot on which my tent is now pitched, ten feet above the water's 
level, the steamer ‘Assam,’ on her second voyage in September, 1842, was 
safely riding in three fathoms of water, now all filled up with fine sand, which 
covered over with reeds, grass, Ferns, Lantana Camara, etc. . . . An immense 
breadth, so that by the river at this season, the distance between Secbsagor and 
hur is ten miles greater than it was in 1842.” Tt is estimated that 
** 106,325,892 tons weight of sand and other matter have been deposited in the 
of Imperata, two or three species of Fe erns, Lantana Camara, ete,” 
Some idea of the vegetation of this district may be gleaned from the 
frequent mention of some among the following genera, the species of 
which are most abundant in the Tea district :— 
