352 MEMOIR OF A SURVEY OF 



cliff of this range from sixty to eighty yards high, and covered from base 

 to summit with soil and forest. The current at this point is strong, and 

 its volume considerable ; large rocks (stones^ project, from four to six 

 feet above the current, which have evidently been rolled down from a 

 distance, as the hills near at hand, from two hundred and fifty to four 

 hundred feet high, are composed of earth and small stones. The banks 

 are every where clothed with forest, in which the Dhak or Kinsuka 

 (Bulea Frondosa,) is conspicuous. The left bank of the river, below 

 where it issues from the hills, is composed of loose granite blocks, occa- 

 sionally resting on a partially decomposed rock ; the strata are in some 

 places horizontal, but in others they are much broken, as if undermined 

 and fallen into the stream. In a dry stone bed was observed a large 

 detached block, twenty-five feet long, eighteen high, and nearly the 

 same breadth. It is difficult to conceive by what means so ponderous a 

 body could have been precipitated into its present position. There are 

 several other large rocks immediately below where the Lohit issues from 

 the hills, by which it is separated into several small channels ; but at 

 (above) the point where these unite, its general breadth is two hundred 

 feet, and it flows with great force and volume ; the course of the river 

 behind the first range is concealed from view by a projecting rock jutting 

 into the river, beneath which it rushes, as from a fall, with much foam 

 and noise. Behind this, the river is said to be free from rapids, and to 

 flow more quietly : the river is also said to change its course behind the 

 first range, and to flow from the south-east under some small hills, behind 

 which a higher range appears with the snowy mountains in the distance." 



" After some ineffectual attempts to open a passage to the supposed 

 head of the river, the Deo Pdni, or Brahma Kimd, the divine water, or 

 well of Brahma, which it was known was not remote, and after some 

 unsuccessful efforts to reach the villages, the smoke of which was 



