their height.

We proceeded up the Burrampooter, crossing it obliquely; its banks
were on the average five miles apart, and formed of sand, without
clay, and very little silt or mud: the water was clear and brown,
like that of the Jheels, and very different from that of the Jummul.
We thence turned eastwards into the delta of the Soormah, which we
traversed in a north-easterly direction to the stream itself.
We often passed through very narrow channels, where the grasses
towered over the boats: the boatmen steered in and out of them as
they pleased, and we were utterly at a loss to know how they guided
themselves, as they had neither compass nor map, and there were few
villages or landmarks; and on climbing the mast we saw multitudes of
other masts and sails peeing over the grassy marshes, doing just the
same as we did. All that go up have the south-west wind in their
favour, and this helps them to their course, but beyond this they
have no other guide but that instinct which habit begets. Often we
had to retreat from channels that promised to prove short cuts, but
which turned out to be blind alleys. Sometimes we sailed up broader
streams of chesnut-brown water, accompanied by fleets of boats
repairing to the populous districts at the foot of the Khasia, for
rice, timber, lime, coal, bamboos, and long reeds for thatching, all
of which employ an inland navy throughout the year in their transport
to Calcutta.

Leeches and mosquitos were very troublesome, the latter appearing in
clouds at night; during the day they were rarer, but the species was
the same. A large cray-fish was common, but there were few birds and
no animals to be seen.