quently, formed an immense reservoir, occupying one of the bastions, to be filled with rain water. Fort William stands in lat. 22° 23′ N.; long. 88° 28′ E.

The rush of the spring-tide up the river, called the bore, has rendered it necessary to lay down moorings before Calcutta. This phenomenon is not peculiar to the Ganges, but it here assumes an extraordinary degree of impetuous violence. The sound resembles that of a steam-boat, but it is infinitely louder. Sometimes it takes one side of the river, and sometimes another, but it never extends over the whole basin. The side up which it rushes, is raised to a frightful height, (sometimes the river rises five feet at Calcutta,) and the appearance is that of a monstrous billow in a storm, or the dash of a foaming surf. Boats have been swallowed up by the bore, and the dandies on the Hooghly feel great terror at the idea of being caught by it. The time of its approach being well known, hundreds of boats may then be seen rowing as for life, towards the middle of the river, the crews urging on each other with wild shouts or shrieks, though, at the moment, no danger appears; but soon afterwards, the spectator is made sensible how necessary was the precaution, as the bore foams by with tremendous noise and velocity.

Barrack poor, the Governor-General's country resi

depth of 140 feet, no springs could be reached. The soil is a tenacious blue clay. At a depth of 35 feet, a stratum of decayed wood is found; the debris, it is supposed, of some ancient forest. Immense quantities of saltpetre are found in the Bengal plain. The tendency of the soil to produce it, Bishop Heber says, " is very annoying to the builders and the occupants of houses. It can scarcely be prevented from encroaching in a few years on the walls and floors of all lower rooms, so as to render them unwholesome, and eventually uninhabitable. Half the houses in Calcutta are in this predicament, and their ground-floors useless. Cellars are unknown in this part of India."-Heber, vol. i. p. 75.,

dence," is really," says Bishop Heber, 66 a beautiful place, and would be thought so in any country. It has, what is here unexampled, a park of about 250 acres of fine turf, with spreading scattered trees, of a character so European, that if I had not been on an elephant, and had not from time to time seen a tall coco-tree, towering above all the rest, I could have fancied myself on the banks of the Thames, instead of the Ganges." The view of the river, though less broad here than at Calcutta, is very fine; and the opposite bank is adorned with a thick robe of drooping bamboos, overtopped by the stately palm and feathery coco-nut, here and there opening into a lawn or garden surrounding a dwelling; and immediately in front is seen the quiet-looking town of Serampore, a Danish settlement, with its little spire and flag-staff, and neat white buildings, forming a very pleasing object. The cantonment of Barrackpoor is very pretty, consisting of a large village inhabited by soldiers, with bungalows for the European officers and other white inhabitants, who are attracted hither by the salubrity of the air, the vicinity of the Governor's residence, or the beauty and convenience of the river. The park-grounds are about four miles in circumference. In one corner is an aviary, built after the model of a Gothic chapel. The collection of birds, with the exception of a few rare specimens from the eastward, is not remarkable Neither is the ménagerie, we are told, so extensive or fine as might be expected. The black panther, the wild Cape dog, and the Java pig with a curious snout protruding like the proboscis of the elephant, and used in like manner, are among the few rare animals. There is also a species of buffalo, called the ghyal, a native of Nepaul and Thibet, much larger than any Indian cattle, with a bushy tail and immense horns, extend

ing laterally, and forming almost a mass of white and solid bone to the centre of its forehead: it is very tame and gentle. Bishop Heber mentions also a handsome animal of the ass kind, from the Cape of Good Hope, strong and bony, yet finely formed, with fine eyes, and the skin beautifully clouded with different tints of ash and mouse colour: it is of a wild and untameable spirit. He met also two lynxes (siya gush), led each in a chain by his keeper, and one of them in body-clothes like an English greyhound; both perfectly tame and extremely beautiful creatures. The Bengalee bear appeared to him to form a link between the badger and the common bear: it burrows in the ground, and has a longer snout and claws than the European, although in every thing but its greater vivacity, it closely resembles the bradypus or sloth. It feeds chiefly on vegetables. The Sincapore bear, which is somewhat smaller, is a beautiful animal, with a fine, black, close fur, very playful and not greedy. All of them climb like cats, notwithstanding their bulk, which equals that of a large Russian bear. But the noblest sight is three full-grown royal tigers of immense size, grouped together in one cage. Rajah Budenath Roy, an opulent baboo, has at Chitpoor, a ménagerie of animals and birds, inferior only to that at Barrack poor.

Serampore is a handsome place, kept beautifully clean, and looking more like a European town than Calcutta or any of the neighbouring cantonments. Since the Copenhagen rupture, this once flourishing settlement has, however, grievously declined, and its revenues scarcely meet the current expenses. Many persons of different nations, who like a cheaper residence than Calcutta, take houses here. One of them was the abode of the excellent David Brown, and a

deserted pagoda was for some time the residence of Henry Martyn.* But Serampore has become more peculiarly interesting and celebrated from being the residence of those associate Missionaries whose literary achievements as oriental translators have excited the admiration of all Europe. It is now five and thirty years since the venerable father of the Serampore mission, Dr. Carey, first left Britain, with a view to devote himself to the cause of extending Christianity among the heathen population of India. Very little attention was, at that time, given to the subject in this country. The Missionary Society in connexion with which he embarked in this great enterprise, was an obscure provincial association; and of the five who formed its first committee of management, Carey was himself one; while three of the other four, on whom the chief weight of the undertaking rested, were his most intimate friends. immediately directed his attention to two objects; first, to provide for his own support, that he might not be chargeable on the liberality of his English friends, and secondly, to master the vernacular languages of the country, with a view to the translation of the Holy Scriptures. In 1799, after he had prosecuted his solitary labours for about six years, four other individuals, actuated by similar views, went out to unite in the undertaking, only two of whom, however, lived to take an active part in it; viz., the Rev. Mr. Ward, the author of the View of the History and Literature of the Hindoos, who died in the year 1823, and Dr. Marshman, the author of the first complete Version of the Holy Scriptures into the Chinese language. In the course of somewhat more than thirty years, the whole of the inspired volume has been ren

* At Aldeen, below Serampore.

He

dered, by these indefatigable men, with their colleagues and native assistants, into nine of the Indian dialects, and the New Testament into fifteen more. Of the Bengalee version,* five editions have been circulated, and a sixth is in the press, together with second editions of the Hindee, the Orissa, the Mahratta, and the Sanscrit. The other languages into which translations are in different degrees of advancement, are, The Telinga, the Sikh (or Punjaubee), the Gujuratee, the Kunkuna, the Kurnata (or Canara), the Pushtoo, the Assamee, the Wutch (or Moultanee), the Bikaneer, the Cashmeer, the Bhugulkund, the Maruwar, the Harotee, the Kunoja, the Oojein (or Oojjuyinee), the Khassee, the Bruj, the Jumboo, the Munipoor, the Magadha (or Pali), and three or four of the dialects spoken by the mountaineers of Kumaoon and Nepaul. The Chinese Version was commenced in

* Commenced in 1794, and finished at press, in 1801. In this Version, more especially, Dr. Carey was assisted by his eldest son, the late Felix Carey, who, having arrived in India at the age of ten years, spoke and wrote several of the native dialects with ease and accuracy. His indefatigable labours and studies are supposed to have hastened his death at the early age of thirty-five..

+ These were severally commenced in 1802, 3, and 4, and brought to a conclusion at press, in 1811.

See Seventh and Ninth Memoir respecting Translations, printed at Serampore. Brief Memoir relating to Serampore, London, 1827. Also, Eclectic Review, New Series, vol. xx., pp. 438-457, vol. xxiv. pp. 482–511. Most of these languages differ only as dialects; and "above three-fourths of the words in most of the secondary cognate languages, were understood in all their bearings through the Sungskrit, the Bengalee, and the Hindee, before the versions were begun." The reason for entering simultaneously upon so many translations, was this. The Marquis Wellesley had, during his administration, collected at Fort William, a number of learned natives, most of whom, on his leaving India, were discharged. The opportunity thus presented to the Missionaries, of engaging so many persons, well qualified to assist them in the arduous work of translation, was too valuable to be neglected. Dr. Carey had already mastered the Sanscrit and