ASSAM GOLD. 93 



such a vein could be worked profitably. In the river, there exists a 

 natural agent performing on a large scale all the operations of mining 

 and of pulverizing the material, and of concentrating the gold in the 

 comminuted matrix. Thus the operations remaining to be performed 

 by the gold-washer are only the final portions of the entire process. 



The authors of these Reports forwarded four specimens of gold. These 

 have been subjected to careful examination by Dr. T. Boycott, Assay 

 Master at the Calcutta Mint, who kindly undertook the assay. The 

 results were as follow : — 



No. 1 Gold, from the Brahmapootra, yielded S8'281 per cent, of pure gold. 

 No. 2 „ „ „ Noa-Dehing „ 93-880 „ „ 



No. 3 „ „ „ Dihong „ 90-234 „ 



No. 4 „ „ „ Hookong „ 86-588 „ „ 



