332 GEOGRAPHY AND 



Experience recently acquired dissipates this favourite hypothesis, and it 

 now appears far more probable, (as indeed, has been asserted by the inhabi- 

 tants of Eastern Asa?n,) that the original rise of the Brahmaputra, or Lohii, 

 takes place at the same point, whence flows the Irawadi to the southward, 

 through the heart of the Burman empire. 



The general course of the Lohit above Ra?igpiir, is in a north-east direc- 

 tion, gradually inclining to the eastward on approaching Sadii/a, and is- 

 suing through the hills from the Reservoir of the Brahmaku?id, situated in 

 about the ninety-sixth degree of Longitude, and twenty-seventh degree north 

 Latitude — beyond it, masses of snowy mountains extend to the eastward, 

 whence, at a considerable distance, the Lohit is supposed to draw its first 

 source. 



In more tranquil times, the Brahmahund was a place of great pilgrimage, 

 and is still held in reverence by the Hindus, as possessing peculiar sanctity. 



Having thus adverted to the general course of the stream, I shall pro- 

 ceed in detail, commencing from the mouth of the Dikho river, where the 

 map drawn by Ensign (now Lieutenant-Colonel Wood,) terminates. 



Quitting the mouth of the Dikho river, which flows from the southern 

 hills, past Ghargaon and Rangpur, the channel of the Brahmaputra is 

 found to pursue a northerly direction, inclining to east, for a considerable dis- 

 tance, having on its left bank deep jungle and high trees, which mark the 

 site of former populous villages now desolate, and their inhabitants carried 

 into slavery by the Sinh-phos and other predatory tribes. 



The Disang also unites at the mouth of the DIM1O3 flowing from the 

 south-east, and passing the Bor Hath» 



