THE DELTA OF THE GANGES. 491 



real figure. Mr. Herbert H. Smith for instance, an 

 intelligent American traveller and observer, states 

 that of the three last named rivers (which are all of 

 them clear water streams), the Tocantino is consid- 

 erably the largest in size, being " 1600 miles (in 

 length) by the Araguaya branch, and nearly 1500 by 

 what is considered as the Tocantino proper." * And 

 in his closing chapter on The Tributaries of the 

 Amazon, Mr. Smith gives a number of details, show- 

 ing that there are quite a number of other rivers 

 whose size might entitle them to be added to the 

 above list, did time and space permit. 



Our object however is to sketch merely an outline 

 of the leading features of this great system, without 

 wearying the reader by a mass of technical details, 

 for which we must refer those desirous of further 

 information to works specially devoted to a description 

 of the Amazon region. 



Another great river system, with a delta second in 

 size only to that of the Amazon, is the Ganges, which 

 is joined at Goalundo, near the head of this delta, by 

 the Brahmaputra, another immense river, coming from 

 the eastward to mingle its waters with those of the 

 sacred Ganges, before their united stream enters the 

 Bay of Bengal, whose billows are stained for hundreds 

 of square miles by its muddy waters. 



One of the wildest districts in India is this great 

 territory of swamps and lagoons, known as the " Sun- 

 darbans, " which stretch along the seaward face of this 

 delta, between the mouths of the Hooghly and the 

 Megna, local names given to two of the principal streams 

 which issue from it. 



* Brazil, the Amazon and the Coast, by Herbert H. Smith, 1 880, p. 590. 



