335 GEOGRAPHY AND 



by it. This flood continued for about fifteen days, during which time vari- 

 ous agricultural and household implements, elephant trappings, and numerous 

 articles belonging to a race, evidently social and civilized, of pastoral and 

 agricultural habits, were washed down in the stream. 



This circumstance, which does not seem to admit of any doubt, must 

 establish satisfactorily, the existence of a passage from the north to a stream 

 connected with the Brahmaputra, and its communication, either perennial, 

 periodical, or occasional, with a considerable river of the northern plains. 

 All the accounts received by me, concur in calling this river the Sri JLohif, 

 and that it takes its original rise from the upper or inaccessible Brahma^ 

 hundt (as recorded in their sacred traditions,) at the same spot with the 

 Buri Lohit, or Brahmaputra. It must be a stream of great importance, 

 as it is familiar to all the various tribes with whom I have held intercourse. 

 The Dihong river, therefore, as being supposed to unite with it, I consider 

 as the point of keenest interest in the extension of geographical knowledge. 



Near the confluence of the Dihong with the Lohity is also that of the 

 Dibongy (a minor stream) which also issues from the northern hills, but 

 ^considerably to the eastward of the Dihong, and the hilly space between is 

 inhabited by the Abors, a rude hill race, populous and in dependant, of whom 

 the more powerful, called Bor Abors, occupy the inner, more lofty, and se- 

 cure ranges. Of the manners and customs of these savage tribes, we have, 

 as yet, but little information, for up to the period of my quitting Sadiya, 

 none of them had been inspired with sufficient confidence to visit us. A list 

 of the names of chiefs on the first, or lowest range, as given to me, will be 

 found in the Appendix. (I.) ) 



Above the mouths of the Dihong and Dibong, and the Miri territory, 

 the river passes through the district of Sadiya, the capital of which, of 



