ASAM AND THE NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES. 381 



some large tree, and in some places this even cannot be found, but the 

 passage in front of some projecting rock is aided by trees bound together 

 with cane, and their extremities either buried in the soil or fastened to the 

 trunks of other trees. 



About one o'clock we found the chasm widening, and soon after we 

 came upon fields. The entire mountain crossed is of granite, in which the 

 mica is not abundant. At the field I found that a green stone and sienite had 

 taken the place of the former granite, and saw several masses of pure horn- 

 blend rock. From the fields we descended to the So, the source of which 

 we had seen in the trickling water near the summit of the mountain — it was 

 now a large rivulet, and no longer fordable. We next climbed up a very 

 steep rock, which could not be surmounted but by the help of the canes 

 which are left tied there, and about three o'clock we once more found 

 ourselves near the Brahmaputra, and we overlooked its course from the 

 east to the distance of ten or twelve miles. 



The scene has now an entirely new character : the river washes the 

 bases of the mountains, which on both banks rise so high as to have their 

 tops clothed in snow: they are very steep, but near their bottoms the 

 declivity is easy, and has the appearance, when viewed from a height, of 

 an undulating plain. This, the Brahmaputra intersects, running at the 

 bottom of a deep channel or chasm, which has much the appearance of 

 having been gradually deepened by the action of the water. The outline 

 of the hills is varied and beautiful, and they have no longer the inhospita- 

 ble look given by the uniform black jungles on those left behind, but 

 are covered with alternate patches of grass and forest, with extensive 

 intermixture of cultivated fields reaching to near their summits. A longer 

 mountain immediately over the river appears to be of granite — on this bank 

 the great number of large black blocks of hornblend rock and greenstone 

 indicate that these constitute the strata. 



b 3 



