Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 202, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1912 — Source of the Brahmaputra. [ARTICLE]

Source of the Brahmaputra.

For 40 years the birthplace of the great Brahmaputra river of India was thought to be among the high valleys of the eastern Himalayas or on the Plateau of Tibet north of those mountains. The theory could not be proved, for hostile Abors in the Himalayan valleys killed the explorers or barred their way when they sought to solve the mystery. It was believed 20 years ago that the Sangpo river, flowing far eastward through southern Tibet, was the upper part of the Brahmaputra. Marked logs set afloat in the Sangpop were watched for in the Brahmaputra, but were never found. At last, however, the explorers sent out with the troops who have punished the Abhors for their massacre of Williamson and his 200 carriers have shown that the two rivers are identical. The Brahmaputra rises far west near the headwaters of the Indus, among the mountains bordering southern Tibet.