282 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
ponderous an animal inspires amazement. But 
though we shot nothing we saw much of the life of 
the forest: we observed how the evergreen trees, 
aided by fire protection, were ousting the more 
valuable trees of the deciduous forest, and we laid 
plans for the assistance of the latter; we noticed 
how the “sél” trees on the alluvial deposits were 
making good growth, promising dividends much 
superior to those anticipated by our predecessors ; 
how on the grasslands the cotton-trees were covering 
the ground and preparing the way for the arrival 
of superior species; how luxuriantly grew the 
“‘shisham” and “ khair” on the islands of the clear, 
flowing rivers, so that we were sorry to come again 
to the muddy stream of the Brahmaputra, flowing 
through solitudes of grass and sand. 
This is perhaps a mightier river than the Irrawadi, 
but without its charm. The great Assam waterway 
seems deserted by the habitations of man. As one 
emerges from the gloom of a night spent in a stranded 
steamer on a dank sand-bank, one may see a few 
fever-stricken wretches waiting on a dreary wharf; 
but on the great Burmese river the steamer carries 
the market-stalls for the inhabitants of a country- 
side who live on the banks of the stream; the 
people, well dressed and eager, crowd around, cheap- 
ening their purchases and praising their own wares, 
and the livelong day is an endless repetition of such 
social enjoyments. Assam is a sad place in com- 
parison with Burma, but perhaps more congenial 
to the lover of Nature and sport, and our abiding 
impressions of the country will be, first, of the starry 
nights as seen through the thin grassy roofs of the 
