436 



Hie Physical Condition of 



and in some places deeply covered with mud ; we suddenly ascended 

 from the dry bed of an occasional water course,* and at first sight dis- 

 covered a total change of soil and vegetation. 



From floundering in mud, we now stood on a light, red, dry, and 

 dusty soil, notwithstanding the rain to which it was exposed, in 

 common with every part of the country at the time. 



This colony is probably about fifty yards in length and twenty in 

 breadth, and extends along the S. W. brow of the dry channel : the 

 height of the bank on which the tea grows is about five feet. The 

 surrounding low ground is overgrown with reeds, and the higher 

 tracts with forest trees. The surface on which the tea plants are 

 growing is much indented, and excavated ; for being loose, it is easily 

 encroached upon, by accumulations of water when they take place in 

 the channels. Thus situated on a loose and defenceless bank at the 

 verge of a forest, this colony of tea plants may be considered as under- 

 going gradual obliteration from destruction of the surface, and there is 

 reason to suppose that it has at one time been much more extensive 

 than it is at present. 



Gubru-Purbut.— The fourth colony of tea plants we visited, is three 

 days' journey E.S.E. of Joorhath, where the plant is found in a bright 

 yellow, or red soil, on the lower extremity of a small range of gradu- 

 ally declining hills, extended about three miles from the Naga Moun- 

 tains into the valley. The extent of ground which is 'covered by this 

 group of plants, is about 60 yards in diameter, and of circular shape. 

 The spot is raised about fifty feet above the plain, which is low, marshy, 

 and covered with reeds on the northern and eastern side ; but the low 

 ground on the S.W., where a small valley is formed between the hill 

 and the mountains , is cultivated with rice, and contains several villages j 

 but at the immediate foot of the eminence on which the tea plants are 

 situated, the ground is too low and subject to inundation, to admit of 

 any sort of cultivation, so that this locality of the plant may be said to 

 be surrounded by inundated grounds on all sides except on the S. E., 

 where the narrow chain of hills covered with forest, connects it with 

 the Naga mountains. 



* Water courses, or what are called Beels, are common features in this part of the 

 country, and are formed hy the inundations of the Bramaputra, which, retiring rapidly, 

 have excavated shallow channels in the alluvium to the depth of three or four feet, where 

 the superficial yellow clay interrupts their farther progress. When not too low, they 

 form good rice groundr and pasture. 



