20 TERAI. Ch a p . XVII.
perpendicular, and beautifully stratified with various
coloured sands and gravel: it tailed off abruptly at the
junction of the rivers, and then trended away southwest,
forming the west bank of the Teesta. The latter
river is at its outlet a broad and rapid, but hardly
impetuous stream, now fifty yards across, gushing from
between two low forest-clad spurs: it appeared about
five feet deep, and was beautifully fringed on both sides
with green Sissoo.
Some canoes were here waiting for us, formed of
hollowed trunks of trees, thirty feet long: two were
lashed together with bamboos, and the boatmen sat
one at the head and one at the stern of each: we lay
along the bottom of the vessels, and in a second we
were darting down the river, at the rate of at least ten
or fifteen miles an hour, the bright waters leaping up
on all sides, and bounding in jets-d'eau between prows
and stems of the coupled vessels. Sometimes we
glided along without perceptible motion, and at others
jolted down bubbling rapids, the steersmen straining
every nerve to keep their bark’s head to the current,
as she impatiently swerved from side to side in the
eddies. On our jaded and parched frames, after the
hot forenoon’s ride on the elephants, the effect was
delicious: the fresh breeze blew on our heated foreheads
and down our open throats; we dipped our hands
into the clear, cool stream, and there was “ music in
the waters ” to our ears. Fresh verdure on the banks,
clear pebbles, soft sand, long English river-reaches,
forest glades, and deep jungles, followed in rapid
succession ; and as often as we rounded a bend or
shot a rapid, the scene changed from bright to
brighter s till; so continuing until dusk, when we were
slowly paddling along the then torpid current opposite
Rangamally.
The absence of large stones or boulders of rock in
the bed of the Teesta is very remarkable, considering
the great volume and rapidity of the current, and that
it shoots directly from the rocky hills to the gravelly
plains. At the embouchure there are boulders as big
as the head, and in the stream, four miles below the
exit, the boatmen pointed out a stone as large as the
body as quite a marvel.
They assured us that the average rise at the mouth
of the river, in the rains, was not more than five fe e t:
the mean breadth of the stream is from seventy to
ninety yards. From the point where it leaves the
mountains, to its junction with the Megna, is at this
season thirteen days’ voyage, the return occupying
from twenty to twenty-five days, with the boats unladen.
' The name “ Teesta ” signifies “ quiet,” this
river being so in comparison with other Himalayan
torrents further west, the Cosi, Konki, &c., which are
devastators of all that bounds their course.
We passed but two crossing-places: at one the river
is divided by an island, covered with the rude chaits
and flags of the Boodhists. We also saw some Cooch
fishermen, who throw the net much as we d o : a fine
“ Mahaser ” (a very large carp) was the best fish they
had. Of cultivation there was very little, and the only
habitations were a few grass-huts of the boatmen or
buffalo herdsmen, a rare Cooch village of Catechu and