ASAM AND THE NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES. 351 



the middle channel, which is interrupted and crooked. The first time we 

 struck, I perceived a crack in the bottom, under my feet, at least a cubit 

 long, and this visibly opened every shock we received, and indeed the 

 whole descent was a succession of such shocks, so that with the water 

 received by the leak, and that by the waves washing over, we were obliged 

 to stop some time to bail out and lighten our canoe. 



Captain Bedford's account of his voyage was noticed in the Govern- 

 ment Gazette of September 21, 1826, and the extract then given has 

 been reprinted in Wilson's " Documents illustrative of the Burmese 

 War," to which I refer for a very interesting narrative. I propose to give 

 here an abstract of the Geographical results. 



" On the 10th March, the course pursued left the main stream, and 

 proceeded up the Suhatu, a detached branch on the " left" bank of the 

 Brahmaputra, and, like that, intersected by rapids, and endlessly subdi- 

 vided by islets " formed of accumulations of boulders." No signs of life 

 were observable in this part of the journey, and although the banks were 

 covered with thick forests, few birds or beasts disturbed their solitude. 

 The Suhatu forms, with the Brahmaputra or Bor Lohit, an extensive island, 

 the greater part of which is impenetrable forest ; but there is one village 

 in it of some extent, named Chata, inhabited by Mishmis, who are of more 

 peaceable habits than the mountain tribe (on the Dibong) of the same 

 appellation. After a tedious voyage of eighteen days, during which nearly 

 forty rapids were passed, the course returned, on the 28th of March, to 

 the Bor Lohit or Brahmaputra. The Suhatu opens above a rapid in the 

 main stream, which is pronounced by the Natives impracticable, and 

 it has every appearance of being so. And at this point, the river, now 

 confined to a single branch, takes a northerly direction and passes under 

 the first range of hills. It runs in one part close below a perpendicular 



