fate of any unfortunate traveller to leeward of a fire. In Assam, excepting the fields close to the villages, the best land is never manured. One crop of planted winter d'han or rice is cut in November or December, every year, from generation to generation. This land is never allowed to lie fallow; abundant rain being all that is requisite to ensure plentiful crops: the richness of the soil seems inexhaustible. The low lands liable to inundation are never manured; the jungle is burnt down, and for three successive years two crops are annually realized from it. In February, mustard seed is gathered in: a source of great profit to the cultivator; and in June the spring rice, sown broad-cast, is reaped. After the land has been thus impoverished, it is allowed to remain fallow for three years; and fresh jungle land is burnt and prepared in the same primitive way, and with the most simple implements of husbandry. In other parts of Assam extensive tracts of land are beautifully cultivated, and pretty villages are numerously studded over the country; but, although lakes and streams are everywhere to be met with, no attempt is made by the Assamese tribes, excepting the Cacharries, to irrigate the land, and thus render the crops more certain and productive. The Cacharries who reside at the foot of the hills are the most useful and industrious, as well as the most athletic men in Assam, and allowed to be the best cultivators. They irrigate their lands to a great extent from hill streams, and consequently raise far better crops than their neighbours. During the months of June, July, August, and September, a great portion of Assam is inundated, and boats leaving the innumerable streams and large rivers, paddle over the country in every direction; indeed, in many places, particularly at Burpetah, boats form the only means by which any communication can be kept up. To facilitate intercourse during the dry season, roads have been constructed, and bullock-carts introduced, similar to the hackerys in use in the Western Provinces of India, for the conveyance of the produce of the lands to the best markets; but the Assamese are so wedded to their old customs, and attached to the use of slaves and bondsmen in every capacity--as servants, porters, and cultivators, that it has been found no easy matter to induce them to adopt a new system, however obvious its advantages.