19 



out the whole year, is 80,000 cubic feet in a second, 

 or 6,912,000,000 cubic feet per diern. But during 

 the rainy months the quantity is 405,000 cubic feet 

 in a second ; and, as the water of the (granges yields 

 about one part in four of sediment, it is calculated 

 that during- the flood seasons, there daily passes 

 down this river, a mass of matter equal to seventy- 

 four times the weight of the Great Pyramid of 

 Egypt. It is the alluvial soil thus transported by 

 the great rivers of the world, gradually deposited 

 and silently accumulated through ages, that has 

 formed those deltas, the productive resources of 

 which surpass those of all other lands. And the 

 most remarkable perhaps of these, is the delta formed 

 by the Ganges and Brahmaputra, the entire of 

 which will one day, probably, be reclaimed, and 

 form the richest tract of country in India.* 



We are thus taught an instructive lesson by 

 nature, who, if she takes a portion of the water 

 which the Earth sends forth, returns it to her in the 

 form of rain, giving back to succeeding generations 

 of man, rich and fertile plains in lieu of the sediment 

 received with the waters. Consequent, in some 

 measure, on causes of this nature, the revenues of 

 the province of Bengal are nearly equal to a third of 

 the revenues of the whole peninsula of India ; and, 



* A Company, the Sunderbund Eeclamation Company, was 

 projected in 1865, or two years after this was written, for the 

 purpose here indicated, but withdrawn in consequence of the 

 financial crisis in Bombay, which followed the conclusion of 

 the American War. January, 1867. 



