VOL. LXXI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 4g 



it appears, as if" undetermined whether to attempt a passage to the sea by the 

 Gulf of Siam, or by that of Bengal ; but seemingly determining on the latter, 

 it turns suddenly to the west through Assam, and enters Bengal on the north- 

 east. I have not been able to learn the exact place where it changes its name ; 

 but as the people of Assam call it Burrampoot, it would appear that it takes this 

 name on its entering Assam. After its entry into Bengal, it makes a circuit 

 round the western point of the Garrow Mountains ; and then, altering its course 

 to south, it meets the Ganges about 40 miles from the sea. 



Father Du Halde expresses his doubts concerning the course that the Sanpoo 

 takes after leaving Thibet, and only supposes generally that it falls into the gulf 

 of Bengal. M. D'Anville, his geographer, with great reason supposed the 

 Sanpoo and Ava River to be the same : and in this he was justified by the in- 

 formation which his materials afforded him : for the Burrampooter was repre- 

 sented to him, as one of the inferior streams that contributed its waters to the 

 Ganges, and not as its equal or superior ; and this was sufficient to direct his re- 

 searches, after the mouth of the Sanpoo River, to some other quarter. The 

 Ava River, as well from its bulk, as the bent of its course for some hundred 

 miles above its mouth, appeared to him to be a continuation of the river in 

 question : and it was accordingly described as such in his maps, the authority of 

 which was justly esteemed as decisive ; and till the year 17^5, the Burrampooter, 

 as a capital river, was unknown in Europe. 



On tracing this river in 1 7^5, I was no less surprized, at finding it rather 

 larger than the Ganges, than at its course previous to its entering Bengal. This 

 I found to be from the east ; though all the former accounts represented it as 

 from the north : and this unexpected discovery soon led to inquiries, which fur- 

 nished an account of its general course to within 100 miles of the place where 

 Du Halde left the Sanpoo. I could no longer doubt that the Burrampooter and 

 Sanpoo were one and the same river: :...d to this was added the positive assurances 

 of the Assamers, " That their river came from the north-west, through the 

 Bootan mountains." And to place it beyond a doubt, that the Sanpoo River is 

 not the same with the river of Ava, but that this last is the great Nou Kian of 

 Yunan ; I have in my possession a manuscript draught of the Ava River, to 

 within 150 miles of the place where Du Halde leaves the Nou Kian, in its 

 course towards Ava ; together with very authentic information that this river 

 (named Irabattey by the people of Ava) is navigable from the city of Ava into 

 the province of Yunan in China. 



The Burrampooter, during a course of 400 miles through Bengal, bears so 

 intimate a resemblance to the Ganges, except in one particular, that one descrip- 

 tion may serve for both. The exception I mean is, that during the last 60 miles 

 before its junction with the Ganges, it forms a stream which is regularly from 4 



VOL. xv. H 



