320 MEMOIR OF A SURVEY OF 



river, to the head of the Majholi island, and as both Officers might be 

 profitably employed, we were directed to separate, one of the two 

 re-surveying in progress to Rangpur, the Diking, or southern branch. 



I may here endeavour to elucidate a point which I observe has caused 

 considerable difficulty — I have it on the authority of the present Bar 

 Gohayn of Asam, corroborated by the evidence of other well-informed 

 Asamese whom I had questioned, that before the remarkable flood from 

 the Dihong altered entirely the state of its channels, and the direction 

 of the principal body of the river, the Diking did not disembogue itself 

 where it does now into the Brahmaputra, but turning to the south-east 

 received the Disang, and Dihko, the Jazi, and Disai river, and was dis- 

 charged into the great river near Mahura. A peninsula, or rather long 

 neck of land then existed, and the channel of the Diking was then in the 

 bed of that branch still retaining the name. The great river from near 

 Sildni Miir to Sisi, flowed in a bed which still continues to fill in the 

 rains, though it is of diminished size to the north of the present channel. 

 It is called the Burt Suti, or Suti Lohit. The Buri Lokit, since this 

 singular division of its former supply of water has become of so little 

 consequence that above the junction of the Subanskiri, it is barely naviga- 

 ble in the dry season. The division of the waters of the Diking is an 

 event of much later date. It is said that the passage through the low 

 land in the direction of Sacliya, was aided by some rivulet draining the 

 jungles, that an accumulation of stones in the vicinity of the Kusan hills, 

 was the immediate cause, and that the opening now called the new Diking, 

 was very gradually enlarged by the influence of successive rains, causing 

 an equivalent diminution to the ancient Diking, the old communication 

 with which has no water in the cold season, and indeed, the name of 

 Mmi Diking might fairly be dropped in favor of the Namrup, from 

 which it derives its present supply. Whether there existed a channel of 



