VALLEY OF THE SOANE. 167 
is odious. That a degree of taste still lingers in these oriental cities 
is evident from a beautifully carved stone well, situated in a public 
square: its arches and arabesque-work reminded me of the Alhambra. 
The square itself was till lately a pestilential tank, filled up by Mr. 
Monney, the magistrate. He bought the ground, and planned the 
buildings to be erected thereon; and the allotments were all quer 
purchased by native merchants. 
At Mirzapore 1 engaged a native boat to carry me down the river to 
Bhaugulpore, from whence I was to proceed to the Sikkim-Himalaya. 
The accompanying sketch will give you some idea of this “c g 
yacht," which, though slow and very common, had the advantage of 
being cooler and more commodious than the handsomer craft. [have said 
little of Mirzapore, because there is nothing deserving particular notice. 
March 15.—Left Buttowly ghauts, whither my boat had been sent 
from Mirzapore, and in the afternoon passed Chunar. Chunar is the 
first station in which Henry Martyn laboured after his arrival in India. 
This is a noble tabular mass of sandstone, projecting into the river, | 
and interesting to me, as the last trace of the Kymaor or Vindhya 
range. There is not another rock between it and the Himalaya, nor 
even a stone, all the way down the Ganges, till you again meet the 
granite and gneiss rocks of the Behar range. Chunar and Rotas were 
both captured by Sir Home Popham. ‘The current of the Ganges is 
very strong here, and the breadth is conSiderably less. The river runs 
between high alluvial banks, in which is much kunker deposit. The 
boatmen pull very languidly, but the current helps us on; they anchor 
close to shore every night, eat their evening meal, wrap themselves in 
their kupra (garments), and lie down to sleep in the open sky. 
arch 16th.—We arrived at Benares. The Ganges is here a broad 
stream, and rises 43 feet during the rains, with a current of eight 
miles an hour, and, I am informed, carries along one-quarter per cent. 
of sediment. ‘The fall from hence is 300 feet to the junction of the 
Ganges and Hooghly, which is one foot to every hundred miles. My 
observations make the fall from Mirzapore to Benares very much 
greater. 
Benares is the Athens of India. The variety of buildings along the 
bank is incredible. There are temples of all shapes, in all stages 
of completeness, and at all angles of inclination ; for the banks give 
way so much that many of these edifices are fearfully out of the per- 
