natural canals, over a country that approaches nearly to a perfect plane, that, after excepting the lands contiguous to Burdwan, Birboom, &c (which all together do not constitute a fixth part of Bengal) we may fairly pronounce, that every other part of the country has, even in the dry feafon, fome navigable ftream within 25 miles at farthest, and more commonly within a third part of that distance.

It is fuppofed, that this inland navigation gives conftant employment to 30,000 boatmen. Nor will it be wondered at, when it is known, that all the falt, and a large proportion of the food confumed by ten millions of people, are conveyed by water within the kingdom of Bengal and its dependencies. To thefe must be added, the tranfport of the commercial exports and imports, probably to the amount of two millions fterling per annum; the interchange of manufactures and products throughout the whole country; the fisheries; and the article of travelling.

Thefe rivers, which a late ingenious gentleman aptly termed fifters and rivals (he might have faid twin fifters, from the contiguity of their fprings), exactly refemble each other in length of courfe; in bulk, until they approach the fea; in the fmoothness and colour of their waters; in the appearance of their borders and inlands; and, finally, in the height to which their floods rife with the periodical rains.

Of

the two, the Burrampooter is the largeft; but the difference is not obvious to the eye They are now well known to derive their

fources from the vast mountains of Thibet; from whence they proceed in oppofite directions; the Ganges feeking the plains of Hindooftan (or Indoftan) by the weft; and the Burrampooter by the eaft; both purfuing the early part of their courfe through rugged vallies and defiles, and feldom vifiting the habitations of men. The Ganges, after wandering about 750 miles through thefe mountainous regions, iffues forth a deity to the fuperftitious, yet gladdened, inhabitant of Hindooftan. From Hurdwar (or Hurdoar) in latitude 30°, where it gufhes through an opening in the mountains, it flows with a fmooth navigable stream through delightful plains during the remainder of its courfe to the fea (which is about 1350 miles) diffufing plenty immediately by means of its living productions; and fecondarily by enriching the adjacent lands, and affording an eafy means of tranfport for the productions of its borders. In a military view, it opens a communication between the different pofts, and ferves in the capacity of a military way through the country; renders unneceflary the forming of magazines; and infinitely furpaffes the celebrated inland navigation of North America, where the carrying places not only obftruct the progrefs of an army, but enable the adverfary to determine his place and mode of attack with certainty.

In its courfe through the plains, it receives eleven rivers, fome of which are equal to the Rhine, and none fmaller than the Thames, befides as many others of leffer note. It is owing to this vaft in

flux of ftreams, that the Ganges exceeds the Nile fo greatly in point of magnitude, whilft the latter exceeds it in length of course by one-third. Indeed the Ganges is inferior in this laft refpect to many of the northern rivers of Afia; though I am inclined to think that it difcharges as much or more water than any of them, because thofe rivers do not lie within the limits of the periodical rains.

The bed of the Ganges is, as may be fuppofed, very unequal in point of width. From its firft arrival in the plains at Hurdwar, to the conflux of the Jumnah (the first river of note that joins it) its bed is generally from a mile to a mile and a quarter wide; and, compared with the latter part of its courfe, tolerably straight. From hence, downward, its courfe becomes more winding, and its bed confequently wider, till, having alternately received the waters of the Gogra, Soane, and Gunduck, befides many fmaller ftreams, its bed has attained its full width; although, during the remaining 600 miles of its courfe it receives many other principal ftreams.Within this fpace it is, in the narroweft parts of its bed, half a mile wide, and in the wideft, three miles; and that, in places where no islands intervene. The ftream within this bed is always either increafing or decreafing, according to the season. When at its loweft (which happens in Apr 1) the principal channel varies from 400 yards to a mile and a quarter; but is commonly about three quarters of a mile.

The Ganges is fordable in fome places above the conflux of the Jumnah, but the navigation is

never interrupted. Below that, the channel is of confiderable depth, for the additional ftreams bring a greater acceffion of depth than width. At 500 miles from the fea, the channel is thirty feet deep when the river is at its loweft; and it continues at least this depth to the fea, where the fudden expanfion of the stream deprives it of the force neceffary to fweep away the bars of fand and mud thrown across it by the strong foutherly winds; fo that the prin cipal branch of the Ganges cannot be entered by large veffels.

About 220 miles from the fea (but 300 reckoning the windings of the river) commences the head of the Delta of the Ganges, which is confiderably more than twice the area of that of the Nile. The two westernmoft branches, named the Coffimbuzar and Jellinghy rivers, 'unite and form what is afterwards named the Hoogly River, which is the port of Calcutta, and the only branch of the Ganges that is commonly navigated by fhips. The Coffimbuzar River is almoft dry from October to May; and the Jellinghy River (although a ftream runs in it the whole year) is in fome years unnavigable during two or three of the dryeft months; fo that the only fubordinate branch of the Ganges, that is at all times navigable, is the Chundah River, which feparates at Moddapour, and terminates in the Hooringotta.

That part of the Delta bordering on the fea, is compofed of a labyrinth of rivers and creeks, all of which are falt, except those that immediately communicate with the principal arm of the Ganges. This tract, known by

the

the name of the Woods, or Sunderbunds, is in extent equal to the principality of Wales; and is fo completely enveloped in woods, and infested with tygers, that if any attempts have ever been made to clear it (as is reported) they have hitherto miscarried ts numerous canals are fo difpofed as to form a complete inland navigation throughout and acrofs the lower part of the Delta, without either the delay of going round the head of it, or the hazard of putting to fea. Here falt, in quantities equal to the whole confumption of Bengal and its dependencies, is made and tranfported with equal facility: and here alfo is found an inexhauftible store of timber for boat-building. The breadth of the lower part of this Delta is uwards of 180 miles; to which, if we add that of the two branches of the river that bound it, we fhall have a out 200 miles for the distance to which the Ganges expands its branches at its junction with the fea.

It has been obferved before, that the course of this river, from Hurdwar to the fea, is through an uniform plain, or, at least, what appears fuch to the eye: for the declivity is much too fmall to be perceptible. A fection of the ground, parallel to one of its branches in length 60 miles, was taken by order of Mr. Haftings; and it was found to have about nine inches defcent in each mile, reckoning in a straight line, and allowance being made for the curvature of the earth. But the windings of the river were fo great, as to reduce the declivity on which the water ran, to lefs than four inches per mile: and by a compa

rison of the velocity of the streami at the place of experiment with that in other places, I have no reafon to fuppofe, that its general defcent exceeds it.

The medium rate of motion of the Ganges is lefs than three miles an hour in the dry months. In the wet season, and during the draining off of the waters from the inundated lands, the current runs from five to fix miles an hour; but there are inftances of its running feven, and even eight miles, in particular fituations, and under certain circumstances. I have an experiment of my own on record, in which my boat was carried 56 miles in eight hours, and that against so strong a wind, that the boat had evidently no progrellive motion through the water.

When we confider, that the velocity of the stream is three miles in one feafon, and five or more in the other, on the fame descent of four inches per mile; and, that the motion of the inundation is only half a mile per hour, on a much greater defcent; no further proof is required how fmall the proportion of velocity is, that the defcent communicates. It is then, to the impetus originating at the fpring head, or at the place where adventitious waters are poured in, and fucceffively communicated to every part of the ftream, that we are principally to attribute the velocity, which is greater or leffer, according to the quantity of water poured in.

In common, there is found on one fide of the river an almost perpendicular bank, more or lefs elevated above the ftream, according to the feason, and with deep water near it: and on the opposite fide a

bank,

bank, fhelving away fo gradually as to occafion fhallow water at fome distance from the margin. This is more particularly the cafe in the most winding parts of the river, because the very operation of winding produces the fteep and fhelving banks: for the current is always ftrongest on the external fide of the curve formed by the ferpentine courfe of the river; and its continual action on the banks either undermines them, or wathes them down. In places where the current is remarkably rapid, or the foil uncommonly loofe, fuch tracts of land are swept away in the course of one season, as would astonish those who have not been eye-witneffes to the magnitude and force of the mighty ftreams occafioned by the periodical rains of the tropical regions. This neceffarily produces a gradual change in the courfe of the river; what is loft on one fide being gained on the other, by the mere operation of the stream; for the fallen pieces of the bank diffolve quickly into muddy fand, which is hurried away by the current along the border of the channel to the point from whence the river turns off to form the next reach, where the stream growing weak, it finds a refting place, and helps to form a fhelving bank, which commences at the point, and extends downwards, along the fide of the fucceeding reach.

To account for the flackness of the current at the point, it is neceffary to obferve, that the ftrongeft part of it, instead of turning fhort round the point, preferves for fome time the direction given it by the last steep bank, and is accordingly thrown obliquely

across the bed of the river to the bay on the oppofite fide, and purfues its courfe along it, till the intervention of another point again obliges it to change fides.

In those few parts of the river that are ftraight, the banks undergo the leaft alteration, as the current runs parallel to them; but the leaft inflection of course has the effect of throwing the current against the bank; and if this happens in a part where the foil is compofed of loose fand, it produces in time a serpentine wind. ing.

It is evident, that the repeated additions made to the fhelving bank before mentioned, become in time an encroachment on the channel of the river; and this is again counter-balanced by the depredations made on the oppofitefteep bank, the fragments of which either bring about a repetition of the circumftances above recited, or form a bank or fhallow in the midft of the channel. Thus a fteep and a fhelving bank are alternately formed in the crooked parts of the river (the fteep one being the indented fide; and the fhelving one the projecting); and thus, a continual fluctuation of courfe is induced in all the winding parts of the river; each meander having a perpetual tendency to deviate more and more from the line of the general courfe of the river, by eating deeper into the bays, and at the fame time adding to the points, till either the oppofite bays meet, or the ftream breaks through the narrow ifthmus, and reftores a temporary ftraightness to the channel."

Several of the windings of the Ganges and its branches are fast approach.

approaching to this ftate; and in others, it actually exifts at prefent. The experience of these changes fhould operate against attempting canals of any length, in the higher parts of the country; and I much doubt, if any in the lower parts would long continue navigable. During eleven years of my refidence in Bengal, the outlet or head of the Jellinghy River was gradually removed three quarters of a mile farther down: and by two furveys of a part of the adjacent bank of the Ganges, taken about the diftance of nine years from each other, it appeared that the breadth of an English mile and a half had been taken away. This is, however, the most rapid change that I have noticed; a mile in ten or twelve years being the ufual rate of encroachment, in places where the current ftrikes with the greatest force, namely, where two adjoining reaches approach nearest to a right angle. In fuch fituations it not unfrequently excavates gulfs of confiderable length within the bank. Thefe gults are in the direction of the strongest parts of the stream; and are, in fact, the young hoots (if I may fo exprefs myfelf which in time ftrike out and become branches of the river; for we generally find them at thofe turnings that have the fmalleft angles.

Two caufes, widely different from each other, occafion the meandering courses of rivers; the one, the irregularity of the ground through which they run, which obliges them to wander in queft of a declivity; the other, the loofenefs of the foil, which yields to the friction of the border of the ftream. The meanders in the firft

cafe, are, of course, as digreffive and irregular as the furface they are projected on: but, in the latter, they are fo far reducible to rule, that rivers of unequal bulk will, under fimilar circumstances, take a circuit to wind in, whofe extent is in proportion to their refpective breadths: for I have obferved, that when a branch of the Ganges is fallen fo low as to occupy only a part of its bed, it no longer continues in the line of its old courfe; but works itself a new channel, which winds from fide to fide across the former one. I have obferved too, that in two ftreams, of equal size, that which has the floweft current has also the fmalleft windings: for as these (in the prefent cafe) are folely owing to the depredations made on the banks by the force of the current; fo the extent of these depredations, or, in other words, the dimenfions of the windings, will be determined by the degree of force acting on the banks.

The windings of the Ganges in the plains, are, doubtlefs, owing to the loofeness of the foil: and (I think) the proof of it is, that they are perpetually changing; which thofe, originally induced by an inequality of furface, can feldom, or never do.

I can easily fuppofe, that if the Ganges was turned into a straight canal, cut through the ground it now traverses in the moft winding parts of its courfe, its ftraightnefs would be of fhort duration. Some yielding part of the bank, or that which happened to be the most ftrongly acted on, would first be corroded or diffolved: thus a bay or cavity would be formed in the fide of the bank. This begets an inflection