EASTERN FRONTIER DISTRICT.

213

       Clothing. —The uniform is good and suitable to the climate. Boots are in a transition
period. The Government boot served out to the troops in the Duffla expedition is worn out,
and these articles have now to be procured at the men's own cost.

Clothing.

       XI. Duty and employment. —Nights in bed: Gauhati, 6.1; Tezpur, 6.6; Nowgong, 3.1. The
ordinary duties consist of the usual parades, musketry, and guard duties, and are at all times
tolerably heavy, but seldom enough to call for notice; there are also emergent duties at times
in the cold weather, such as guards for the civil settlement officers, the Chief Commissioner
on tour, and an annual guard to the Udalgurri fair, at the foot of the Bhutan hills.

Duty and
employment.

       XII. Exercise, amusements, &c. — As a rule, there is not much leisure for amusement. During
the only season in which it can be enjoyed in Assam, sports have been got up two or three
times and joined in extensively by the men. The Sikhs go in a good deal for various athletic
exercises, and many of the Goorkhas are ardent shikaris.

Exercise,
amusements,
&c.

       XIII. Marches and service. —A detachment of 150 men acted as an escort to the survey
party in the Naga Hills. An immense extent of country was gone through, and the duty was;
as a rule, very severe. Every man was considered to be constantly on the alert, and the marches
were long, quick, and through a very hilly country. There was very little sickness, and that chiefly
in the men who were left at the base depôt, and only one death from dysentery. Though there
were several attempts at surprises, none of the men were actually wounded by the Nacras; but
there were some cases of punctured wounds of the feet from the 'panjis,' or bamboo-spikes that
are driven into the ground by these men in their retreat. These wounds are very nasty and
tiresome in cure; the bamboo of which they are made is said to be of a poisonous variety.

Marches and
service.

       XIV. Hospital. —This has been previously described. The accommodation is sufficient up
to the months of September to November; but as there is only room in the wards for about
60 men, in those months they have generally to be supplemented by using tents. All men
admitted into hospital are compelled to bring a proper supply of bedding with them. There
are no quarters for the hospital assistants, and hutting money has been applied for. In case of
its being sanctioned, quarters will be built close to the hospital. The accommodation for the
inferior establishment is insufficient, and half the men have to find quarters where they can.
At present there are only seven rooms for ten families.

Hospital.

       XV. Sickness, mortality and invaliding. —Strength of the regiment:—

       XVI. Principal causes of sickness. —As this report is only of the station of Gauhati, I shall
under this head discuss only the sickness at head-quarters. Malarial fevers gave, during 1876,
the large percentage of 184.11, and this by no means represents the amount of sickness from
these diseases. During the months of September, October and November, there were scarcely
10 per cent. of the men who were not suffering more or less from ague, or its complications, in
addition to the ordinary forms of fever. We find that there are also due to malarial poisoning,
spleen diseases, liver diseases, anæmia, debility, many of the bronchial affections, and
probably in some cases diarrhœa and dysentery; so that putting aside the diseases due to
malaria, Assam is in other respects by no means an unhealthy climate. Referring to the pre-
ceding paragraphs for an explanation of this prevalence of malarious disease, it will be seen that
from the nature of the site of cantonments it is almost impossible to hope that Gauhati can
ever be made a healthy station. There are here all the factors generally said to produce malaria,
and malaria is produced. As for the increased sickness of the past year there can be very
little doubt but that it was due to the drainage water of the hills being retained in the swamps
by the bund that had been constructed over the Nuddea, and this great mass of water stagnating
close to cantonments and slowly drying up, the greatest prevalence of fevers was in the
months of October and November; and this period coincided with a fairly high mean temper-
ature, a high humidity, the steady fall of the river flood and little rain, that is to say, with

Principal
causes of
sickness.

D 2