GANG GANNET. 



361 



lowest note of the Guidonian or common com- 

 pass. 



GANG ; a select number of a ship's crew, appoint- 

 ed on any particular service, and commanded by ar 

 officer suitable to the occasion. 



GANG A ; a Sanscrit word, meaning river. Hence 

 the Ganges is called so by way of excellence. 



GANG BOARD ; a plank or board, with several 

 cleats or steps nailed to it, for the convenience ol 

 walking into or out of a boat upon the shore, where 

 the water is not deep enough to float the boat close 

 t'i the landing place. 



GANGES (called by the natives Ganga, i. e., the 

 river) ; one of the greatest rivers of Asia^ which 

 rises from the south side of the Himmala mountains, 

 between Ion. 78 and 79 E. ; lat. 31 and 32 N. 

 After flowing through Serinagur, it is joined, in lat. 

 30 9' N., by the Alacananda. Pursuing a course of 

 thirty or forty miles farther, it issues from the moun- 

 tains of Hurdwar. At Allahabad it is joined by the 

 large river Jumna, and this junction forms the most 

 venerated place of Hindoo ablution. It afterwards 

 receives the Goomty, Gogra, Soane, Bagmutty, 

 Gunduck, Coosy, Teesta, and numerous smaller 

 rivers. It divides into numerous branches, called the 

 mouths of the Ganges, which flow into the bay of 

 Bengal, between Ion. 88 and 9l p E. ; lat. 21 40' 

 and 22 30' N. The main branch receives the great 

 river Barrampooter about forty miles above the bay 

 of Bengal. Its general course is south-easterly; its 

 length, upwards of 1600 miles : at 500 miles from 

 its mouth, it is four miles wide and sixty feet deep in 

 the rainy season, and thirty feet deep in the dry. Its 

 descent is computed at four inches per mile ; its mo- 

 tion in the dry season is less than three miles an 

 hour ; in the wet season, five or six, and in particular 

 circumstances and situations, seven or eight. It is 

 supposed to discharge, on an average, throughout 

 the year, 180,000 cubic feet of water in a second. 

 The Ganges, like the Nile, has a very wide delta, ex- 

 tending east and west about 200 miles, and com- 

 mencing about 200 miles, or 300 by the course of the 

 river, from the sea, and intersected by numerous 

 branches. A part of it is an uninhabited country, 

 called Sunderbunds, overgrown with forests and in- 

 fested with tigers. The westernmost branch, called 

 the Hoogly, which is formed by the Cossimbazar and 

 Jellinghy, is the only branch commonly navigated 

 by ships. The country through which it flows, 

 except the Sunderbunds, is healthy, and the water 

 salubrious, and highly esteemed by the natives. 

 Some of the principal cities on this river and its 

 branches are Calcutta, Dacca, Moorshedabad, Patna, 

 Benares, Allahabad, Lucknow, Agra, and Delhi. 



[t is an imperative duty of the Hindoos to bathe in 

 the Ganges, or, at least, to wash themselves with its 

 waters, and to distribute alms on certain days. The 

 Hindoos believe that this river rises immediately 

 from the feet of Brama, and that it possesses great 

 miraculous powers on account of its divine origin. 

 Whoever dies on its banks, and drinks of its waters 

 before his death, is thought to be exempted from the 

 necessity of returning into this world, and commenc- 

 ing a new life. Whenever, therefore, a sick person 

 has been given over by the physicians, his relations 

 hasten to carry him to the bank of the Ganges, in 

 order that he may drink of the holy water, or be im- 

 mersed in the river. Such as live too far from the 

 river to admit of this, always preserve some of the 

 precious water, as a sacred treasure, in a copper ves- 

 sel, that it may be given them in the hour of death. 

 This water is, therefore, a considerable article of 

 commerce in India. It is also customary, after the 

 dead have been burned, to preserve the remains of 

 the bones, and the ashes, until an opportunity offers 



of throwing them into the Ganges. That line of 

 the Ganges which lies between Gangotree and Sager 

 island, below Calcutta, is held particularly sacred. 

 Wherever the river runs from south to north, contrary 

 to its usual direction, and wherever it joins other 

 rivers, it acquires a more peculiar sanctity. In the 

 British courts of justice, the water of the Ganges is 

 used for swearing Hindoos, as the Bible is for Chris- 

 tians. See Asia and Hindostan. 



GANGRENE is a great and dangerous degree of 

 inflammation, wherein the parts begin to be in a 

 state of mortification. 



GANGWAY; a narrow platform, or range of 

 planks, laid horizontally along the upper part ot a 

 ship's side, from the quarterdeck to the forecastle, 

 peculiar to ships that are deep waisted, for the con- 

 venience of walking more expeditiously fore and aft. 

 than by descending into the waist. It is fenced on 

 the outside by iron stanchions, and ropes or rails, 

 and, in vessels of war, with a netting, in which part 

 of the hammocks are stowed. In merchant ships, it 

 is frequently called the gangboard. 



Gangway is also that part of a ship's side, both 

 within and without, by which persons enter and de- 

 part. It is provided with a sufficient number of 

 steps, or cleats, nailed upon the ship's side, nearly 

 as low as the surface of the water, and sometimes 

 furnished with a railed accommodation ladder, re- 

 sembling a flight of stairs, projecting from the ship's 

 side, and secured by iron braces. 



Gangway is also used to signify a narrow passage 

 left in the hold, when a ship is laden, in order to 

 enter any particular place as occasion may require, 

 whether to examine the situation of the provisions 

 or cargo, to discover and stop a leak, or to bring out 

 any article that is wanted. 



Finally, gangway implies a thoroughfare, or nar- 

 row passage of any kind. 



To bring to the Gangway; a phrase signifying to 

 punish a seaman, by seizing him up, and flogging 

 him with a cat-o'-ninetails. 



GANNET (sula, Brisson). This bird is about 

 three feet in length, and six in breadth from tip to 

 tip ; the whole plumage is of a dirty white, inclining 

 to gray. The eyes are of a pale yellow, and sur- 

 rounded with a naked skin, of a fine blue colour. The 

 is six inches long, and furnished beneath with a 

 kind of pouch, like that of the pelicans, with which 

 birds the gannet was classed by Linnaeus. The 

 eannets are birds of passage, appearing in Great 

 Britain in the summer, arriving about March, and 

 departing in August or September. They princi- 

 pally feed on herrings ; and hence it is probable, that 

 :heir arrival and departure are influenced by the 

 motions of these fish, as they are constantly seen at- 

 tending them during the whole circuit of these fish 

 round the British islands. They migrate to the 

 southward in the winter, and appear on the coast of 

 Portugal. In the breeding season, these birds retire 

 to high rocks on uninhabited islands, and are found 

 n immense numbers in the Orkneys, and on the 

 Bass rock in the firth of Forth. These dreary pre- 

 cipices are almost covered, during May and June, 

 with nests, eggs, and young birds. Pennant says 

 that the numbers of these birds that fly around their 

 weeding places, appear to a person at some distance 

 ike a swarm of bees ; and when he approaches the 

 bot of the rocks, the air is immediately darkened 

 with the vast flocks that rise from their nests. These 

 lests are generally formed of sea-weed. The female 

 ays only one egg, though, if it be removed, she will 

 leposit another. The young are much darker than 

 .he old birds. They remain in the nest until they 

 lave nearly attained their full size, becoming ex- 

 tremely fat. In this state they are much esteemed, 



