1853.] and Seesee rivers in Tipper Assam. 515 



Notes on the Gold Melds of Assam. — By Major Hannay. 



Although it is well authenticated that the produce of the gold- 

 washings in Assam, particularly Upper Assam, formed a very con- 

 siderable source of revenue to the Assam Government of former 

 days, no correct data can be obtained so as to give an idea of the 

 exact amount of gold realized yearly : — but, as the Sonwals, or gold- 

 washers, one of the constituted Khele or sections of the inhabit- 

 ants (according to occupation) who paid their taxes in gold, form 

 a large portion of the population, we may reckon on its having 

 been something considerable, when in the Northern district of Sud- 

 deah alone, including Luckimpore, these Sonwal paiks amounted to 

 10,000. Allowing, therefore, that every paik, at the lowest rate, 

 supplied 4 annas weight of gold-dust yearly, the total amount would 

 be 40,000 grs. for that district alone, and as the same system of gold- 

 washing obtained in the districts of the South bank of the Brah- 

 mapooter, as much more may have been there realized, and it may 

 not be perhaps beyond the mark, to note the yearly produce of 

 gold-washing in Assam, in former times, as amounting to 8, or 

 10,000£ sterling. 



In the short account of Assam given at the end of Yol. III. of 

 Montgomery Martin's " Sketches of Eastern India," in enumerat- 

 ing the rivers on the North bank of the Brahmapooter, the whole 

 of them are said to contain gold in their sands, and the Subanshiri, 

 Dikrung, Boopani, Booragong, and Boargon, rivers of the Luckim- 

 pore and Kullungpore districts, are noted each as to the quality and 

 -quantity of their gold ; but other small rivers in the Luckimpore dis- 

 trict — the more prolific sources of the Dihong, the Dibong, or the 

 Brahmapooter — are not alluded to, neither is the Dihing or any one 

 river on the South bank mentioned ; which shows, that the informa- 

 tion relative to the extent of the Gold fields, was imperfect. Chap. 

 III., however, of the same notice, under head " Commerce of Assam," 

 states, that the Assam Government received into the Royal Trea- 

 sury 1,500 grs. weight of gold yearly, from a gold mine called Paker- 

 guri, situated at the confluence of the Dhunsiri river with the 

 Brahmapooter. The Pakerguri is a small river rising in the Beng- 

 ma mountains joining the Dhunsiri, a day's journey within its con- 



