18 50.] Economic Geology of Assam. 339 



most of which according to native account contain poongs or springs 

 of mineral water, similar to those exposed and knowu. The surface 

 soil is a vegetable mould, but the small nullahs which are crossed 

 expose clays and gravel, and some of the ascents and descents of 

 the low hills are entirely composed of small felspar boulders and 

 rubble. Within one and a half miles of the descent to the Bur 

 Pathur plain at Hulgootee Jan, or pebbly brook, a fine bed of marl 

 is exposed (vide No. 6) on one side of the nullah, a similarly coloured 

 but more compact bed (probably containing iron) on the other side. 

 Mr. Masters also mentioned that in the same nullah above this 

 point there is a bed of white clay marl, similar to No. 3. The low 

 hills and undulating ground stop abruptly, and the Bur Pathur 

 plain is formed by these, running inland West from the Dhuuseree 

 river, turning round South and East, again meeting the Dhuuseree 

 river, enclosing a tract of land several miles in area, and mostly 

 under rice cultivation. The deposits in the Pathur or rice-land are 

 clays of the best description. Mr. Masters also mentions a deposit 

 of white Kaolin marl visible in the bank of the river near one of the 

 villages in a very convenient spot. Water is always abundant in 

 the rice-land, several small streams passing through it, and one or 

 two natural springs of pure water rise up directly under the fall 

 of the high land. Viewed from the North, on entering the Pathur 

 the scenery is very pretty, and altogether the site is promising and 

 ought to sustain twice the number of inhabitants it does. A report 

 on the several thermal springs which are known in the Golaghat 

 district has been forwarded by Mr. Masters' Sub-assistant in charge. 

 The heat of the water in the two I have visited, he makes 112°. 

 The Namber river springs smell strongly of sulphur when fresh 

 taken, and the water issues out of a gravel deposit in large quan- 

 tities. No attempts, that I am aware of, have been made to dig in 

 the direction of the spring, to ascertain the nature of the uuder 

 lying strata, the upper gravel of felspar, being evidently brought 

 down and deposited by the river. From the continuous deposits 

 of bluish hard clay in the Namber, the probability is, that the waters 

 pass through this from beds of limestone, perhaps underlying this 

 clay ; the waters of the springs called bailee poong in the Dhuu- 

 seree, and not half a mile distant from these, do not reach the 



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