82 THE ASSAMESE. 



veller may now wander through that very picturesque 

 vale, surrounded on all sides with lofty mountains of the 

 Himmaleh range, varying from 100 feet upwards to 

 20,000 feet, and inclosed in an amphitheatre of these 

 mountains, with their snow-white tops breaking on the 

 view, as the clouds cleared away, or dropped down their 

 steep sides. There rolls the mighty Burampooter at his 

 feet being the connected streams of the Dihon, Dibong, 

 from north west and north-east, and the Dihing from the 

 east, China extending some ten to twenty miles in width, 

 rushing down in its angry course, sweeping huge trees 

 along, the roar of its waters re-echoing from hill to hill, 

 and the wild woods on all side ; no town or village or 

 dwelling visible, no human being or boat to be seen, all 

 strikes awe into the heart of the visitor ; and be he a free- 

 thinker or atheist, the grandeur, the wildness of the scene, 

 yea, the tumultuous rage of that great river itself, would 

 force from him the acknowledgment of a Supreme Power. 

 It is in that valley that Providence seemed to show forth 

 most majestically his wonderful works ; on that valley he 

 seemed to take a peculiar pleasure to pour all natural 

 blessing for the residence of man ; and in that valley man 

 has cursed his own existence, and by the vileness of his 

 nature reduced himself to a state of distress not to be con- 

 ceived, through the use of opium. The tourist, after long 

 and painful travelling through the dense forest, following 

 wild elephant tracks, the only opening in the woods, 

 sometimes going back from the place of his destination, 

 and sometimes north, sometimes west, as the break made 

 in the underwood might lead, with leeches crawling up 

 his boots, and making their way all over his body, or 

 dropping down on him from the trees, and the blood 

 from their bites, from himself and his followers, trail- 



