

THE countries around the Bay of Bengal, with the larger 

 islands of the Malayan peninsula, are the principal habitations 

 of these formidable animals ; and they appear to be large in 

 size and powerful in action, in proportion as the ground which 

 they inhabit is fertile. 



There is, perhaps, no river in the world which has made so 

 extensive deposits in the lower parts of its valley, or where 

 the portions near the sea are so closely tangled with vegeta- 

 tation, or so thickly stocked with animals, as the Ganges. 

 The Sunderbunds, or islands formed between the different 

 mouths of the Ganges, the name of which signifies a forest 

 of rapidly-growing trees, form altogether a triangle, each 

 side of which is nearly two hundred miles in length, or alto- 

 gether it is not much less than England. This may be con- 



(405) 



