THE GANGETIC TIDES. 493 



lasts from June to October, the cultivated portions of 

 it being then covered with crops of rice. Its very 

 flat nature may be perhaps better understood, when 

 we say that Dakka, though situated about 100 miles 

 from the sea, is not more than ten feet above tide 

 level. * 



The influence of the tides therefore ascends from 

 the Bay of Bengal for an immense distance up coun- 

 try. Their vertical rise during spring tides, at Sangor 

 island at the mouth of the Hooghly, is 1 2 feet f and 

 their ebb and flow keep all the rivers throughout the 

 delta in a constant state of agitation, banking up the 

 water at one period of the day, and causing it to 

 race with dangerous velocity during the period of the 

 ebb. During the rainy season these conditions are of 

 course greatly intensified by the tremendous floods 

 which then pour down the Ganges and Brahmaputra. 

 The strea^n at these times comes tearing along with 

 uncontrollable fury, almost with the impetuosity of a 

 mill race, and frequently runs with a speed of eight 

 or nine miles per hour, so that nothing but a power- 

 fully engined steamboat can make head against it. 



It is therefore evident that when exceptional causes 

 combine to create an unwonted commotion, these 

 restless and dangerous waters assume a most destruc- 

 tive character. Near Dakka, the action of the river 

 has played particular havoc with the coufttry, the whole 

 river system having here become completely changed 

 during the present century; and this town, once the 

 ancient capital of Bengal, is now cut off from the 



* See Murray's Handbook for India and Ceylon, 1892, p. 268 

 Route 2oB. 



j Norie's Navigation, 2 1st edit, Table Ivii., p. 856. 



