the westerly delta branches, the Hugli, or Hooghly, on which Calcutta stands, is the most frequented highway to the sea. The country between the Meghna and the Hugli, which constitutes the delta proper, is fertile and thickly populated in its upper part, but on its southern borders by the sea, is little better than a series of great swamps. 4. The Ganges is well suited for navigation, and on the river and its tributaries and connecting canals not less than 300,000 boatmen are said to be employed. Large sea-going ships ascend the Hugli, to a little above Calcutta, and steamers of light draught can go up to Kanpur (or Cawnpore), and thence by canal to Hurdwar. The Jamna is also navigable up to the ancient city of Delhi. 5. Steam navigation on the Ganges above Calcutta, however, has ceased to be important, the great cities by its waters being now all connected by rail. "But the river itself, quite as much as the progress of the railways, has determined the fate of the cities which from time to time have grown up in its vicinity. At uncertain intervals great changes take place in the bed of the stream, which alter the whole condition of the neighbouring country. Islands are thrown up in places where, a few weeks before, the river rolled, and, owing to the rapid growth of vegetation in these countries, are speedily covered with bush, which affords a shelter to the alligators, with which the river abounds. By-and-by, the silt brought down shoals up the space between the islands and the bank on one side, and then the current, sweeping against the opposite shore, washes into its flood a cultivated farm, a mile of forest, or a village of mud huts. Or, it may be, that the river cuts out for itself a new channel, far from the old one. So frequent and sudden are these changes in lower Bengal that it is considered dangerous to erect buildings of a large or permanent character within the range of the river's action. The existence of ruined cities, long ago deserted, attest the changes wrought by the Ganges in former times." 6. Apart from its character as a great highway for millions of people, the Ganges is a sacred river. Gangotri, the highest accessible point on its banks, the points of junction of the Gumti and Ghagra, and especially the tongue of land at Allahabad where the Jamna flows into the Ganges, are all favourite places, where "thousands of the pious flock in poverty and misery, happy if, after praying and washing in the holy water, they can return to their distant villages conscious that they have taken a fresh start in holiness." Benares is everywhere celebrated as the holy city of the Ganges. Its fame in the time of Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General, has been thus described: "It was commonly believed that half a million of human beings were crowded into that labyrinth of lofty alleys, rich with shrines and minarets, and balconies and carved oriels, to which the sacred apes cling by hundreds. The traveller could scarcely make his way through the press of holy mendicants, and not less holy bulls. The broad and stately flight of steps which descended from these swarming haunts to the bathing places along the Ganges, were worn every day by the footsteps of an innumerable multitude of worshippers. The schools and temples drew crowds of pious Hindoos from every province; and hundreds of devotees came hither every month to die for it was believed that a peculiarly happy fate awaited the man who should pass from the sacred city into the sacred river."* 7. The Ganges is liable to great variation in depth and width. The melting snows of the Himalayas in spring, and the summer rains of the south-west monsoon swell the volume of water, so that at Benares, for instance, the width and depth of the river are doubled. In lower Bengal in July the country about the delta is inundated, and presents the appearance of an immense sea. Hundreds of square miles of rice-fields are covered, the ears of grain floating on the surface of the water; while, in all directions, peasants may be seen going to their daily work with their cattle on rafts, or in canoes. * Macaulay. Silt. Mud and fine sand brought down by the river. Minaret. A slender lofty turret or tower surrounded by balconies LESSON XX. INDIA. THE WATER SYSTEM--II. 1. The Brahmaputra, though a larger river, is less important and less known than the Ganges. It rises in the Plateau of Tibet, not far from the source of the Indus, and flows eastward behind the Himalaya range for a distance of about a thousand miles. It then turns south, breaks through the mountain chain, and flowing west and south-west, joins the delta of the Ganges on the east. In its estuary there are numerous islands, some of which are inhabited and well cultivated. 2. The Indus rises in a Himalayan peak 18,000 feet above the sea, and before it falls into the Arabian Sea it drains an area four times as large as that of Great Britain and Ireland. It first flows north-west; but, like the Brahmaputra, it then turns south to find its way by deep gorges to the Indian plain. The Kabul river joins it at Attock, 950 miles from the sea. Midway between Attock and the sea it is joined by the Panjnad. Panjnad is formed by the united waters of five rivers.* Hence the name Panjab,† the country of the five rivers. The Indus empties its waters into the Arabian Sea by many mouths. In spite of its size and bulk, it is not of great value as a highway for commerce. Its channels through the delta, even when the water is highest, are only navigable for vessels of the smallest size. The 3. The rivers of the Great Plateau flow east and west. They are dependent on the monsoon rains, and * Jelum, Chenab, Ravi, Bias, and Satlej. † Panj = five; ab = water. undergo great changes during the year. In the rainy season they are fearful torrents, in the dry season many of them little more than trickling streams or mere chains of pools. As the western Ghats are higher than the eastern, the plateau has a general slope to the east, and hence most of the rivers flow eastward. The chief of these rivers are the Mahanadi-the Great river-the Godavari, and the Krishna. Two large rivers, the Nurbudda and Tapti, rise in the highlands of Central India, and flow westward into the Gulf of Cambay. 4. The streams which have their origin on the seaward slopes of the western Ghats are, in their upper courses fierce mountain torrents, which carry everything before them, but arriving at the level maritime plains. they become so sluggish that in the estuaries the movement of the water is scarcely perceptible. 5. In some parts, especially to the south-west, the country between the mountains and the sea is below the sea-level, and here the waters from the mountains form extensive lagoons, called "back-waters," referred to in a previous lesson. In the State of Cochin one of these lagoons measures 120 miles in length, and varies in breadth from a few yards to 100 miles. It communicates with the sea at a few places, where the surplus waters flow into the ocean. The navigable value of these lagoons on the Malabar coast is very great. 6. In the dry season the contrast between the rush of the bright mountain streams, dashing down the ravines of the Gháts, and the dark sullen waters of their estuaries, is very marked. Alluding to one of these streams, the Saida, a traveller writes: "It is a bright, sparkling, merry mountain stream, often broken into two or three channels. It flows through grassy glades and sissu forests, swells here and there over sunken rocks, and then forms a tail below a shoal of glittering gravel, which makes a fisherman's eye glisten as it recalls to memory happy days on the Spey or the Findhorn. But here and there a backwater, still as death, runs back far into a ghastly swamp, where the water is never rippled, save by the silent plunge of the weird snake-bird, or the |