OF THE SEA AND LAND. 17 



the Christian sera, the Delta of the Ganges extended 

 but a little way below Fulta. Where that river enters 

 the plain at Haradwar, the elevation, by Captain Hodg- 

 son's measurement, is 1024 feet; and thus we may 

 compute the declivity of the whole. As the rocks 

 and hills about Birbhoom and to the south-east of 

 Chunar, rise suddenly from a dead level, as if out of 

 the water, it is evident that, even there, the plain has 

 been formed from the deposits of the river ; as is fur- 

 ther proved by the fact that, through this whole ex- 

 tent it consists of fine sand and clay, or mud ; and 

 though the total depth of the deposit has not been 

 reached, it has been penetrated, at Benares, to 105 feet ; 

 presenting repeated strata of river sand and clay, alter- 

 nating with vegetable mould ; while, even the antient 

 beds of the river were traced at ninety-five feet in depth, 

 with the bones of men and animals deposited on it. 

 Hence, following the whole of this enormous plain, we 

 may compute, though in a very limited and imperfect 

 manner, the immense quantity of materials which the 

 river must have brought down from the Himdlya 

 ridge ; while the organic remains also allow us to 

 form a conjecture respecting the period in which this 

 accumulation has taken place. Were it necessary, the 

 United States of America would afford similar infe- 

 rences ; beds of sea shells, and other indications of the 

 former presence of the sea, even at the feet of the 

 mountains, giving proof of the production of all the 

 flatter tracts from the waste of the interior lands. 



Such visible accumulations of alluvial soil, added to 

 those which are hidden beneath the sea, may afford 

 some conception of the waste which the rocks have 

 suffered, as of the changes which the face of the land 

 must have undergone, not less from waste than addi- 

 tion : nor, could wr revive a few thousand years hence, 



VOL. II. C 



