898 
GENERAL SCIENCE. 
Art. Il. The Philotophieal Transactions, abridged. 4to. Vol. 1. pp. 744. 
THE transactions of the Royal So- 
ciety of London form the largest and 
most valuable collection extant of me- 
moirs on mathematical and experimental 
philosophy. The early volumes, how- 
ever, are extremely difficult to procure, 
and the price of the whole is greater 
than many persons can conveniently ap- 
propriate to this purpose. There are 
two ways of obviating these inconve- 
niences, either by publishing a new edi- 
tion of the entire work in a more eco- 
nomical form, or by means of judicious 
abridgment to bring it into still smaller 
compass. For our own parts we should 
Art. III. 
have preferred the former plan, yet this 
preference by no means renders us un- 
willing to bestow all merited commen- 
dation on the present work. The mathe- 
matical papers are entrusted to Dr. Hut- 
ton, these on natural history to Dr. Shaw, 
and the medical and chemical ones to 
Dr. R. Pearson. The memoirs of every 
class, as far as we have examined them, 
are very skilfully abridged, nothing use- 
ful is sacrified to mere brevity, and the 
publication richly deserves, and we doubt 
not will obtain, the patronage of the phi- 
losophical world. ‘ 
Asiatic Researches 3 or Transactions of the Society instituted in Bengal for en- 
quiring into the History and Antiquities, the Arts, Sciences, and Literature of Asia. 
Vol. VII. Svo. 
THE man of letters might well feel 
proud in contemplating the permanence 
and pre-eminence of literature, if that re- 
collection were not accompanied by the 
melancholy knowledge, that all other 
things are perpetually changing and 
passing away. <Arrian, and Joinville, 
and Froissart, continue to act upon man- 
kind, when all the kingdoms of Alexan- 
der have lost their religion, their lan- 
uage, and their very names, when 
Ouis is neither respected in his own 
country as one of her kings, nor rever- 
ed as one of her saints; and when the 
Guelphs are seated upon the throne of the 
*Plantagenets. Theeast,by its more rapid 
revolutions, more strikingly exemplifies 
this triumph of intellect over power.— 
Ferishta, and Castanheda, and Valentyn, 
are still consulted with interest, when the 
conquests of the Moguls, and the Portu- 
gueze, and the Dutch, have yielded to 
other invaders; and there may come a 
time, when Orme will be regarded like 
Barros as the historian of victories, of 
- which no other effect shall be remaining. 
With this feeling we have taken up 
this book, recollecting, in that kind of 
melancholy which wili mingle itself with 
a smile, what mighty events have been 
necessary to its production! the voyage 
of Gama, the victories of Albuquerque, 
the loss of Sebastain, and the triumphs 
of Clive!’ If alink in the chain had been 
broken, we should neither have sppped 
our cheerful cup of hyson this evening, 
nor have sate down after it to review 
the seventh volume of the Asiatic Re- 
searches, 
The first article is on the course of the 
Ganges, through Bengal, by Major R. 
H. Colebrooke. Y 
The Ganges, and the other rivers of 
Bengal, are frequently changing their 
course, sweeping away their banks, and 
forming other shores or islands with their 
spoils, 
«¢ Tt is chiefly during the periodical floods, 
or while the waters are draining off, that the 
greatest mischief is done; and if it be consi- 
dered, that at the distance of two hundred 
miles from the sea, there is a difference of 
more than twenty-five feet in the perpendi- 
cular height of the waters, at this season, 
while at the outlets of the rivers (excepting 
the effect of the tides) they preserve nearly 
the same level at all seasons, some idea may 
be formed of the increased velocity wit 
which the water will run off, and of the ha- 
yoe which it will make on the banks. Ac- 
cordingly it is not unusual to find, when the 
rainy season is over, large portions of the 
bank sunk into the channel ; nay, even whole 
fields and plantations have been sometimes 
destroyed ; and trees which, with the growth 
of a century, had acquired strength ta resist 
the most violent storms, have been suddenly 
undermined, and hurled into the stream. 
‘© The encroachments, however, are as 
often carried on gradually, and that partly in 
the dry season; at which time the natives 
have leisure to remove their effects, and 
change the sites of their dwellings, iftoo neat 
the steep and crumbling banks. I have seen 
whole villages thus deserted, the inhabitants 
of which had rebuilt their huts on safer spots 
inland, or had removed entirely to some neigh- 
bouring village or town. Along the banks: 
of the Ganges, where the depredations of the 
stream are greatest, the people are so accus- 
tomed to such removals, that they build their, 
