the huge dogs, the high-mettled horses and covered carts of those noble shepherds. These men were very civil, and regretted they had no milk for me, as they only took a very fittle from each cow once a day, the remainder going to the calf. One old man, however, brought up some milk which he was boiling for his own supper, and willingly sold half of it for a couple of pice, my own goats now supplying me with little. The evening was very fine, and though the night was too dusky for me to walk far, I strolled backwards and forwards, enjoying the delightful elasticity of the dry turf, the fresh breeze of the river, and the fragrant breath of the cows till near ten o'clock. A great many small boats still continued to glide along the stream, as if engaged in nightly fishing, and the dash of their paddles, and the blowing of the porpoises, were almost the only sounds which broke the general stillness. Altogether it was an evening to enjoy and to be thankful for, and a scene which I left with regret.

July 31.-About half an hour after we set out, and while we were close to the shore, we passed by a number of extremely small and mean huts, patched up in a temporary way with boughs and rushes. I asked Mohammed what they were, and he answered "they were people from the upper kingdom." Abdullah said they were a sort of gipsies, who lived by fishing. Some of them came out of their booths as we passed, a race that no man can mistake, meet them where he may, though they are, as might be expected from their latitude and their exposure to the climate, far blacker here than in England, or even than the usual race of Bengalees are. They are the same tall, fine-limbed, bony, slender people, with the same large, black, brilliant eyes, lowering forehead, and long hair curled at the extremities, which we meet on a common in England. I saw only one woman, and her figure was marked by the same characters. In height she would have made two of the usual females of this country, and she stepped out with the stride and firmness of a Meg Merrilies. Of the gipsy cast of her features I could not, however, judge, since, though half naked, she threw a ragged and dirty veil over her face as soon as she saw us. This trait belongs to the upper provinces. In Bengal a woman of her rank would not have thought concealment necessary. There were no boats immediately near them, but a little further we overtook several filled with the same sort of people. The river was here much narrower than it had been for the last day or two, being, as I suspect, divided by islands. Many birds of the crane and stork species were feeding, and there were two at some distance which I thought were pelicans. But if they were, they were smaller than those of Russia, and had more

brown on their wings. We passed several stacks of millet, just gathered and piled up, with a small stage and shed erected in the middle for a watch-house. This is the season, I was informed, for reaping millet; they thrash it out with oxen and a small roller. I also observed some maize, of which I have frequently seen the ears at table, plain boiled, and eaten with salt and butter, like artichokes. The rice along the banks was growing very tall, green, and beautiful; this is the first crop, and to be cut next month as soon as the water has reached it; the rice is reckoned most valuable and wholesome which remains the longest dry.

At a neighbouring village I saw an ape in a state of liberty, but as tame as possible, the favourite, perhaps the deity, certainly the sacred animal of the villagers. He was sitting in a little bush as we stopped, (to allow the servant's boats to come up,) and on smelling dinner, I suppose, for my meal was getting ready, waddled gravely down to the water's edge, He was about the size of a large spaniel, enormously fat, covered with long silky hair, generally of a rusty colour, but on his breast a fine shot blue, and about his buttocks and thighs gradually waving into a deep orange: he had no tail, or one so short that the hair concealed it: he went on all fours only. gave him some toast, and my sirdar-bearer (a Hindoo) sent him a leaf full of rice. I suspect he was often in the habit of receiving doles at this spot, which is the usual place for standing across a deep bay of the river, and I certainly have never yet seen a human fakir in so good case. To ascend a tree must be to a hermit of his size a work of considerable trouble, but I suppose he does so at night for security, otherwise he would be a magnificent booty for the jackalls.

I

We now stood across the bay, passed through another nullah, and then again stood over a wide extent of marsh, of which the long rushes still appeared above the water. Porpoises continued to rise, which, considering the distance from the sea, is what I should not have expected.

The extent of water here really surprised me; we stood north-west by north, and to the west and east I could not, from my cabin-windows, see any land. . We anchored on a sandy islet partly covered with reeds, partly with the remains of a crop of indigo, which a herd of cattle were eating down.

August 1.-Our wind unhappily failed us in a part of the river where we might have derived the most essential service from it, and the greater part of the day we were towed. I feel much regret at occasioning these poor men to labour on a Sunday, but even if I lost a day, that day would not be spent by them in any devotional exercises, and to lose one

COMPANY'S SILK MANUFACTORY.

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în my present journey, and at this time of the year, might hazard all my hope of that journey tending to God's service. Soon after we set out this morning we found the river divided by a large island, and ascended the northern branch, the southern leading towards Jellingby. About one o'clock we emerged into the broad stream, and continued our progress as far as within two miles of Surdah. The country on this side is very populous, well cultivated, and as beautiful as verdure, shade, water, and the splendid variety of Indian shrubs and trees, can make it.

At Surdah is one of the Company's silk manufactories, and the river on which it stands is also the usual route from Dacca to the upper provinces. We here stood directly up the Ganges in a north-west direction, favoured by a little breeze. The crew on leaving the shore set up as usual, though I believe I never before mentioned it, their cry of "Allah hu Allah." I cannot help admiring in the Mussulmans the manner in which their religion apparently mixes itself with every action of their lives, and though it is but too true that all this has a tendency to degenerate into mere form or cant, or even profanation of holy things, for the constant use of God's name in the manner in which some of them use it, scarcely differs from swearing, it might be well if Christians learned from them to keep their faith and hope more continually in their minds, and more frequently on their lips, than the greater number of them do. Above all it seems to be an error, particularly in a heathen country, to act as if we were ashamed of our religion, to watch the servants out of the room before we kneel down to our prayers, or to dissemble in secular matters the hope and trust which we really feel in Providence. By the way, it is only during this journey that I have had occasion to observe how strictly the Mussulmans conform to the maxiin of St. James, to say, "if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that." All the Mohammedans whom I have heard speak of their own purposes, or any future contingencies, have qualified it with Insh Allah.""

Abdullah asked me if the Gunga was one of the rivers of Paradise. I told him it was a difficult question, but that the four rivers of Irak were generally supposed to be those meant by Moses. I instanced the Frat and Dikkel, but had forgotten the modern names of the other two. He seemed sorry the Ganges had no chance, but expressed some satisfaction that he himself had seen them all when with Sir Gore Ousley. While passing Surdah, I could easily distinguish a large brick building, with a long range of tiled warehouses attached, which I was told was a silk manufactory. Had it

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RUINED INDIGO FACTORY.

been another day I should have regretted passing it unvisited The Italian method of curing and managing silk is practised here, having been introduced about fifty years ago, by workmen brought from Italy at the Company's expense. I know not whether it is now kept up with any spirit. On arriving at the west bank we went on prosperously enough, till at last, near a ruined indigo factory, and by that time of evening when the wind usually failed us, we found the stream so strong as to require all hands to pull against it, and the Serang said he could do no more than get to some trees a little further, under which he thought he saw a vessel. What he took for the sail, when we arrived, however, turned out to be the wall of a ruined house, of which the greater part had been swept away by the river, and we found a most inhospitable beach, a fierce current, and nothing but desolation. Some country people came to us, and said we were in one of the worst places of the whole river, that a large village and indigo-work had been washed away here last year, that ropes were often broken, and vessels sometimes lost, and that no boat of any size ever came hither that could not help it. This was very provoking, but nothing was now practicable, as it appeared, except to make our vessels as fast to shore as we could, though after we had done so about an hour, and when it was too dark to move again, a fisherman who came up said there was a very tolerable place for bringing to, a few hundred yards further on. Our distance from Bogwangola was seven coss (fourteen miles.) The line of coast differs greatly from Rennell, but the changes which the river is making on this shore, are obviously such as to account for very considerable discrepancies. The latter part of our sail this day, afforded a very striking sea view. As the course of the river is from north-west to south-east, the sun literally set into it without any appearance of land on the horizon in that quarter. I was very strongly reminded of a sun-set at the mouth of the Mersey. The Ganges is not really so wide, but the general flatness of its shores makes the distance appear greater, and the large pulwars with sails, gliding in every direction, at a certain distance reminded me of the Manks jagger-boats. I tried to find a place for walking, but did not succeed. The whole country was intersected with ditches and little nullahs, and the evening was shutting in too fast to attempt discoveries. No rain had fallen for some days, but the weather was not unpleasant, though now the night closed in with divers prognostics both of rain and wind. A north-wester in our actual situation would have

gone near to wreck us. The night, however, thank God, passed off in great stillness.

August 2.-We had little or no wind, and were compelled to continue our toilsome and tedious course for about four miles further. The channel into which we here entered, was full of vessels carrying cotton down from the upper provinces. Their freight upwards consists of European goods, salt-fish, salt, and coco-nuts. I have missed the coco-nut tree for some days, and I am told they are not found to the north of Jellinghy and Moorshedabad. Great herds of cattle are seen on the shore, and the groups of some of them, cooling themselves in the water, intermingled with fishing-boats and pulwars, and with the meadows bordered by low cottages and bamboos in the back-ground, would have furnished Cuyp with more beautiful subjects, in his peculiar style, than any which he could find in his own country. Since we left the Hooghly, we had bidden adieu to those vast Egyptian brickkilns which are so common on its shores. I had scarcely seen any thing of the kind either on the Matabunga, the Pudda, or the river of Dacca. Here they are beginning to re-appear. Our course continues nearly west, though a little inclining to the south. I saw here a succession of baskets opening out of one another, like traps, or rather on the principle of the eel-net in England, for catching fish, which once entered, cannot conveniently turn round, and therefore go on to a chamber contrived at the end, the entrance to which is guarded with sharp reeds pointing inwards, like a mousetrap. The same invention is practised in Russia, and probably in many other countries, though in England I have only seen it applied to eels.

About nine o'clock, while passing a large collection of boats, the wind suddenly began to blow briskly from the north-east, and I had an example of how soon and suddenly mischief may be done among the weak and clumsy boats of the country. Our pinnace broke from the hold of the men who were towing her, and came against the broadside of a large pulwar laden with corn, with so much violence that I thought she had staved in her quarter, breaking with a great crash the bamboo supporters of her platform, the mat and wicker walls of her cabin, her oars, spars, and every thing else that came in the way. She was no sooner made clear of this vessel, which was done by the united strength of both crews, and with loud cries of" Ullah," and "Ali! Ali!" then she drifted bodily on our cook-boat, which had she reached she would probably have sunk. The crew, however, seeing their danger, pushed themselves with much readiness and dexterity up between a pulwar which we had just passed, and the bank, breaking, indeed, all their own oars, but avoiding a greater risk. Happily no mischief was done, but such