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It may truly be said that the knowledge of the origin of the Ganges was reserved for the present age: for it was so late as the year 1717, that the Emperor CAMHI, sent persons to explore it; and to bring some of its water back with them to Pekin; a journey of about 2500 B. miles from the head of the Ganges. Until the result of this expedition was known in Europe, it was believed, on the faith of the Hindoos, that the springs of the Ganges, were at the foot of mount Himmaleh.

A circumstance attending the courses of the Ganges and Burrampooter rivers, in respect to each other, is remarkably singular. Ifsuing from opposite sides of the same ridge of mountains, they direct their courses towards opposite quarters, till they are more than 1200 miles asunder; and afterwards meet in one point near the sea, after each has performed a winding course of more than 2000 miles. Our ignorance of this circumstance, till so very lately, is a strong presumptive proof, that there yet remains a vast field for improvement, in the geography of the eastern part of Asia.

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SECTION VII.

TABLES of DISTANCES in HINDOOSTAN.

THE

HE following tables, will, it is hoped, be particularly acceptable, not only to those, who for useful purposes may be desirous of calculating the time required for a courier or messenger to travel from one place to another, but also to those, who on the score of curiosity, or for the illustration of history, may wish to be informed of the distances between the principal towns in Hindoostan. This information cannot be obtained merely by the application of the compasses to the map, because the windings and inflections of the roads, are not there taken into the account: but an approximation towards it, may be obtained, by the double operation of measuring the distance on the map, and then applying to it, the rule given in page 7 of this Memoir.

To accomplish the task above proposed, I first selected the names of such cities and other places, as appeared likely to become objects of inquiry, in future; and in so extensive a country, no less than 168 such places occurred. To have given the distance between every two of these places respectively, would not only have extended the tables to an immoderate length (upwards of 14,000 distances occurring on the above number), but would have burdened the purchaser with much useless matter. For instance, although Jionpour has a political connection with Lucknow, and Tanjore with Madras; and it may be necessary that the distance of each of these subordinate places from its superior, should be given:

yet, as Jionpour and Tanjore stand in little or no relation to each other, it was of no use to give the distance between them. The same may be said of most of the other subordinate places.

The method, therefore, that I have followed, is this: I have chosen such places as appear to be of the greatest political consequence (such as the British presidencies, and the courts of the native princes), and of which I reckon 12; and considering them as centres, have formed for each, a separate table, in which the distance from the central place to every other place of note, whose situation may be supposed to become a matter of inquiry, is inserted; the names following in alphabetical order. A page is allotted to each of these central places, which are AGra, Benares, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, DELHI, HYDRABAD, LUCKNOW, MADRAS, NAGPOUR, OUGEIN, POONAH, and SERING APATAM, and these also follow in the same order.

The tables contain near 1000 distances; and although these are reckoned only from 12 different points, yet by attending to the particulars of each table, a great many other distances may be found; as the communication between places, is usually by the medium of the capital towns that intervene (see page 6). For instance, the distance between Arcot and Allahabad may be collected from the tables of Hydrabad and Nagpour, as these places lie in the line of direction between the two former. Also, the distance between Patna and Aurungabad may be found by means of the Nagpour table: and that from Mirzapour to Surat, by subtracting the distance of the one from the other, in the Benares table. And by the same methods, the distances between most other places of note may be found. And in order to facilitate the search, and bring into one view, the respective positions of the several places mentioned in the tables, I have added a small map.

To avoid repeating the distances between the 12 central or primary places, through every table, they are inserted in that table, alone, whose name stands first in the alphabet. Thus the distance

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