If we present to the imagination a wide extended plain, with pens for cattle, and a few humble huts, whose tops are crowned with gourds, the intervening space highly culti vated with wheat, barley, and pulse of all sorts, whose flowers entertain the eye with a variety of rich tints ; if we farther imagine the scene animated with numerous herds of cattle, and a few villages scattered over the distance, the horizon bounding the view with no other remote ob jects than a long line of grass jungle, and a few trees hard ly discernible, from the great Listance on the mainland, we shall then have a tolerable picture of an island of the Gan ges. Finally, if we imagine the air cool, the sky serene and unclouded, we shall have an idea of the state of these islands during at least six months of the year.
In the higher parts of Hindostan, where a conker soil, or a hard reddish calcareous earth, prevails, the banks are not so liable to be undermined, and are even firm enough to resist the utmost efforts of the stream ; but in Bengal, there are few places where a town built on its banks can long retain the advantage of its situation, being either lia ble to be destroyed by the river, or else to be deserted by it. In its course through Bengal, the Ganges may be said to have under its dominion a large portion of the flat coun try ; for not only the channel which contains the main body of its waters, but also the land embraced by its collateral branches, is subject to inundation, or destruction, by en croachment of the stream, and may therefore be consider ed belonging to the river. Nor can the bed of the Ganges through Bengal be said to be permanent. However, from local causes, at sonic. places the main channel and deepest w ,ter will always be found, us at Monghir, Sultangunge, Sicrigully, and Rajemahl ; st these places rocky points project into the stream, and some parts of the bed are stony, or the banks consist of conker.
The following Table will convey an idea of the windings of the Ganges, and its branches: About 200 miles from the sea (but 300 reckoning the winding of the river) commences the Delta of the Ganges. The two westernmost branches, called the Cossimbazar and Jellinghy rivers, unite, and form what is called the Hoogly river, which makes the port of Calcutta, and the only branch of the Ganges commonly navigated by ships. The city of Calcutta stands about 100 miles from the sea, on the east side of the western branch of the Ganges, named by Europeans the Hoogly, and by the natives the Bhagira thi, or true Ganges, and considered by them peculiarly sacred. The river is here, at high water, fully a mile
broad ; but during the ebb, the side_ opposite to Calcutta exposes a long range of sand banks. On approaching Cal cutta from the sea, a stranger is much struck with its ap pearance ; the elegant villas on each side of the liver, the company's botanic gardens, the spires of the churches, temples, and minarets, and the fine citadel of Fort-Wil liam, present a magnificent spectacle. Calcutta possesses the advantage of an excellent inland navigation, foreign imports being transported with great facility on the Gan ges, and its subsidiary streams, to the ,northern nations of Ilindostan, while the productions of the interior are receiv ed by the same channels. Where the Hoogly is joined by the Roopnarain, a very large sheet of water is formed, but it has many shoals; facing directly the approach from the sea, (while the Hoogly turns to the right,) it occasions the loss of many vessels, which are carried up the Roopnarain by the tide. Here is formed a dangerous sand, named the James and Mary, around which the channel is never the same for a week, and requires frequent surveys. The Bore commences at Hoogly Point. So quick is its motion, that it hardly takes four hours to run a distance of 70 miles. It does not flow on the Calcutta side, but along the opposite bank ; from whence, crossing at Chitpoor, about four miles above Fort-William, it proceeds with great vio lence past Barnag-ore and Duckinsore. On its approach, boats must immediately quit the shore, and go for safety into the middle of the river. At Calcutta it sometimes occasions an instantaneous rise of five feet.
The part of the Delta bordering on the sea is composed of a labyrinth of rivers and creeks, named the Sunder bunds, which, including the rivers that bound it, give an expansion of 200 miles to the branches of the Ganges at its junction with the sea. A complete inland navigation is formal from the disposition of these natural canals. In tracing the seacoast of this Delta, there arc eight open logs found, each of which appears to be the principal mouth of the Ganges. The course of the river fluctuates from one side of the Delta to the other ; nothing appearing in its numerous creeks and rivers but regular strata of sand and black mould : The clay is found deposited below.