27 
ships of 23 feet. Foreign vessels are charged double, and 
for all ships outward-bound there is an additional charge of 
one-tenth. 
«The Sand-Heads are the termination of five or six diver- 
ging banks, separated by as many branches of the Hoogly, 
and forming a submarine Delta, fifty miles in diameter; which 
is annually enlarged by the spoils of the continent, carried 
down by that river during the period of its inundation. We 
sailed in through these banks, along what is termed the 
Eastern Channel, till we arrived off Saugur Island, where 
our progress was arrested by the ebb-tide, and we remained 
for a night at anchor. At this point, the mouth of the river 
is fifteen miles across, and displays an uniform expanse of 
muddy water, running at the rate of five miles an hour. 
« From the time we passed Saugur, the ship was constantly 
surrounded with swarms of boats that issued from the creeks 
and borders of the river, with bread, fish, fruit, eggs (for the 
most part addled), and a variety of other minor articles. 
These boats are of a peculiar form, resembling, in some 
measure, those known on the west-coast of Scotland by the 
name of Norway skiffs. They consist of a few stout planks 
of teak, stitched together with the fibres of the cocoa nut; 
and are plied with a rude sort of oars made of an oval piece 
of board attached to a shaft of bamboo; the rowers squatted, 
like so many tailors, on a kind of half deck of loose boards, 
placed athwart-ships, while the steersman stands on the stern, 
with a huge oar, which he manages so as to steer and scull 
the boat at the same time. ‘The whole river is covered with 
boats of this description, employed in fishing. The nets are 
stretched across the stream, and suffered to float up and down 
with the tide, Mine by means of small PESTRE or ee 
of Bomba : 
* Except the awkward fot of diir bonis "n ios : 
rowing them, I could remark little to discriminate the Ben- 
galees who ply on the Hoogly from the savages of the South 
Sea Islands, as depicted by our circumnavigators. The most 
prominent characters of both are similar ; a finely proportioned 
figure, agreeable features, a glossy black skin, strong lank 
