troduced in the local railway,
which extends for some 80 m. to Sadya, with a branch to the Buri Dihing
river at the foot of the Patkoi range. The Patkoi border the plains of
Upper Assam to the south-east, and across these hills lies the most
reasonable probability of railway extension to Burma.

The following are the "lowest level" discharges of the principal
affluents of the Brahmaputra in Upper Assam, estimated in cubic feet per
second:--

Lohit river, 9 m. above Sadya 38,800
Dibong, 1 m. above junction with Dihong 27,200
Dihong " " Dibong 55,400
Subansiri 16,900

The basins of the Dibong and Subansiri are as yet very imperfectly
known. That of the Lohit has been fairly well explored. Near Goalpara
the discharge of the river in January 1828 was computed to be 140,000
cub. ft., or nearly double that of the Ganges. The length of the river
is 700 m. to the Dihong junction, and about 1000 in Tibet and eastern
Bhutan, above the Dihong. The Brahmaputra, therefore, exceeds the Ganges
in length by about 400 m. The bed of the great river maintains a fairly
constant position between its extreme banks, but the channels within
that bed are so constantly shifting as to require close supervision on
the part of the navigation authorities; so much detritus is carried down
as to form a perpetually changing series of obstructions to steamer
traffic.

An enormous development of agricultural resources has taken place within
the Brahmaputra basin of late years, chiefly in the direction of tea
cultivation, as well as in the production of jute and silk. Gold is
found in the sands of all its upper tributaries, and coal and petroleum
are amongst the chief mineral products which have been brought into
economic prominence. During the rains the Brahmaputra floods hundreds of
square miles of country, reaching a height of 30 to 40 ft. above its
usual level. This supersedes artificial irrigation, and the plains so
watered yield abundantly in rice, jute and mustard.

See _Reports_ of the native explorers of the Indian Survey, edited by
Montgomery and Harman; _Imperial Gazetteer of India_ (1908); Sir T.H.
Holdich, _India_ ("Regions of the World" series, 1903); Ryder,
_Geographical Journal_, 1905; Rawlings, _The Great Plateau_ (1906).
(T. H. H.*)

BRAHMA SAMAJ, a religious association in India which owes its origin to
(Raja) Ram Mohan Roy, who be