GANGETIC CURRENTS IN THE RAINY SEASON. 495 



the average fall of the river bed of the Ganges, from 

 Benares to Calcutta, a distance of 66 1 miles, is only 

 from four to five inches per mile ; and from thence to 

 the sea, via the Hooghly, a further distance of 90 

 miles, it is only from one to two inches per mile. * 



It is much the same with all the other streams that 

 flow through the delta; yet such is the momentum 

 created by the pressure of the vast head of water 

 pouring down from up country during the rains, that 

 nothing is able to withstand it. The Hooghly for 

 instance, near Calcutta, is said to have at times been 

 known to rush along with a velocity of as much as 

 ten, and even twelve miles an hour. 



This furious current is created not only by the ebb 

 of the tide, but by the stupendous weight of an immense 

 water area, gravitating down from the interior, which 

 at these times more closely represents an extensive 

 arm of an inland sea than an ordinary river channel. 

 Soon after passing Barackpore, for example, which is 

 14 miles by river above Calcutta, the waters in the 

 rainy season have no visible bounds, f 



Throughout their courses rivers of themselves in 

 fact, represent so many sections of an inclined plain, 

 where the current compressed between enclosing banks 

 on either side, is only retarded from acquiring continu- 

 ally increasing momentum by the consequent con- 

 striction of the stream, powerfully aided by the obstacles 

 it encounters in the convex bends of its course, which 

 act as so many steps in a fish ladder in creating a back 

 water. In this way it has been proved by repeated 



* Encyclop. Brit., gth edit., Vol. x., p. 68 (Article "Ganges"). 

 j- See Picturesque Tour in India along the Rivers Ganges and 

 Jiimna, by Lieut. Colonel Charles R. Forrest of H.M.'s Staff in 

 1, 1824, p. 129. 



