ASAM AND THE NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES. 417 



side there are also steppes, but the rise is gentle and the direction is 

 not so straight. The extent of this valley appeared to be six miles in 

 length, but as the river winds round a hill from the eastward, I did 

 not see the nature of the bed beyond this distance. The whole of 

 it is a stony inclined plain, not very uneven; and vegetation has 

 made but little progress in covering the nakedness of the large round 

 boulders of which it is composed. The immense force of the current has 

 worn for the river rather a deep bed, and it is reported, that the suspen- 

 sion bridge, which is nearly equi-distant (half a mile) from each bank, is 

 not liable to be carried away by the floods of the rains, yet it would 

 appear, that in its various changes in the course of time, the river must 

 have alternately washed the base of the perpendicular cliffs on its east, 

 and traversed over to the foot of the easy slopes on the west — how, other- 

 wise, is the existence of so large a stone bed to be accounted for. The 

 idea on first beholding it is, that it must have been caused by some extra- 

 ordinary convulsion, and the destructive and overwhelming rush of a 

 torrent of waters. The Digaru falling into the Brahmaputra, opposite 

 Suhatu Miikh, presents another instance of similar remarkable feature, 

 excepting that the wide part of its bed is not through hills. The extent 

 of its open stone bed is represented in Captain Bedford's Map as twelve 

 miles long, and it has a breadth of nearly one mile, the sides nearly 

 straight, as if the current in its rush from the mountains admitted of no 

 impediment or delay. Indeed, I was informed by the natives, that both 

 these rivers are notable for their sudden and violent floods. 



I may be excused dwelling on this subject a little longer to mention 



a singular occurrence : while the fleet, under Captain Neufville, was 



moored opposite to the mouth of the JSoa Diking in 1825, the party 



mention that they were startled one evening by a gust of cold wind from 



the eastward, which was immediately followed by a violent commotion in 



the water and sudden swell. Its effects were not severely felt, excepting 



l 3 



