FROM PATNA TO DARJEELING, 303 
peaks of Kinchinjunga in Sikkim, and Gossain-Than in Nepal Even 
at this season, looking from Mr. Barnes' eyrie over the bed of the 
Ganges, the enormous expanses of sand, the numerous shifting islets, 
and the long spits, betray the proximity of some very restless and re- 
sistless power. uring the rains, the scene must indeed be extraor- 
dinary, when the Cosi lays many miles of land under water, and wafts 
so vast a quantity of detritus into the bed of the Ganges that long 
islets are heaped up and swept away in a few hours; and the latter 
river becomes so wild as to be all but unnavigable. Boats are caught 
in whirlpools, formed without a moment's warning, and sunk ere they 
have spun round thrice in the eddies ; and no part of the inland naviga- 
tion of India is so dreaded or dangerous, as the Ganges at its junction 
with the Cosi. 
Rain generally falls in these districts in partial showers at this sea- 
son, and they are essential to the well-being of the spring crops of 
Indigo. The stormy appearance of the sky, though it proved fallacious, 
was hailed by my hosts as apparently predicting a fall, which is most 
grievously wanted. It seems, at present, only to aggravate the drought 
by the great body of sand it lifts and sweeps up the valleys, obscuring 
the near horizon, and especially concealing the whole broad delta of the 
Cosi, where the raised masses are so vast and dense, and ascend so 
high, as to resemble another element. 
All night the hard-hearted gale blew on, accompanied with much 
thunder and lightning, and it was not till noon of the 9th that I 
descried my Palkee boat toiling down the stream. Then I again em- 
barked, taking the lagging boat in tow of my own. Passing the mouths 
of the Cosi, the gale and currents were so adverse that we had to bring 
up on the sand-banks, when the quantity which drifted into the boat 
rendered the delay as disagreeable as it was tedious. The particles pe- 
netrated everywhere, up my nose and down my back, drying my eye-lids, 
and gritting between my teeth. The craft kept bump, bump, on the 
banks, and being both crazy and leaky, the little comfortless cabin 
became the refuge of scared rats and cockroaches. In the evening I 
shared a meal with these creatures, on some provisions my kind friends 
had put into the boat ; but the food was so sandy that I had to bolt 
my supper ! 
At night the storm lulled a little, and I proceeded to Caragola Ghat and 
took up my Dawk, which had been twenty-eight hours expecting me, 
