514 Account of a visit to the Jugloo [No. 6 



from their agricultural pursuits to give to it. After "harvest home" 

 iu January, they form parties aud start with provisions for a week 

 or a fortnight, and in a very short time, if they are fortunate, they 

 may obtain sufficient gold to pay their revenue. They wash in 

 troughs called " doorunis," a process which has been already describ- 

 ed in former numbers of the Journal. # 



In favourable localities, 20 grains of gold is not an unusual return 

 to one day's labour with a dooruni worked by three men, who 

 between them dig up, remove and wash in a day on an average about 

 one ton of rubble. In the operations conducted in our presence, 

 the yield of one dooruni, which was made over to me, was only 11 

 grains, from 1 ton, 2 cwt. and 36 lbs. of rubble, but this was pro- 

 nounced by the gold-washers to be very unfavourable. 



The average may be estimated for the Seesee at 15 grains to 1 

 ton of earth. This in Siberia would not be considered worth work- 

 ing, but to an Assamese, it is very good return for an employment 

 which is not very laborious and is decidedly interesting. To prove 

 •this, it is only necessary to observe the excited and gratified looks of 

 the party as they collect round the dooruni at that period of the 

 operation, when the gold is displayed as a bright fringe bordering 

 the upper portion of the fine black sand, to which the operator has 

 reduced the rubble, he has been working in. 



The annual yield of the Seesee is said to be about half a seer. 

 Judging in this way, the most valuable rivers are the Subanshiri 

 and Dibong, whose yield annually is from a seer and a half to two 

 seers of pure gold. 



The Brahmapooter and Dibong are said to give each from half a 

 seer to three quarters ; the numerous smaller rivers in Luckimpore 

 are variously stated at from a quarter to half a seer, the total annual 

 yield of the district being about ten seers. Each river is worked 

 by the gold-washers who live nearest to it. But, few are now 

 employed in the occupation in comparison to the numbers that 

 engaged in it when Assam was under a native government. The 

 whole of the Khele or tribe of gold- washers were then obliged to fol- 

 low that profession, as they were under the necessity of paying 

 their contribution towards the expenses of the state in pure gold. 

 * Vide Journal Vol. VII. p. 621.— Eos. 



