452 



BENGAL. 



Bengal. 



Soi'. 



Inunda- 

 tions. 



The general" soil of Bengal is a congeries of clay, 

 mixed with a considerable portion of sand, fertilized 

 by various salts a d by immense quantities of decay- 

 ed vegetable and animal substances. It is a rich, 

 blackish mould, extremely loose in its texture, ex- 

 tending to a very great depth, (to six, fourteen, and 

 even to twenty feet,) lying on a bed of sand, inter- 

 spersed with shells and rotten wood, affording every 

 indication of a country gained from the sea, and 

 formed by deposition from the waters of the rivers, and 

 of the annual inundations. In proof of this supposi- 

 tion it may be mentioned, that similar processes are 

 continually affected by the rivers bursting from their 

 beds; and that there are frequently found at the 

 depth of 20 or 30 feet the vn-ecks of boats, with their 

 anchors and other implements, which seem to have been 

 sunk in some remote period, when the soil was lower, 

 or when this vast plain formed a part of the sea. 



These inundations, to which the province of Ben- 

 gal in a manner owes its origin, aud upon the due 

 proportion of which its prosperity annually depends, 

 form the most interesting object of attention to the 

 natives, and must hold a prominent place in every 

 account of the country. The following description 

 of these periodical floods, the most distinct with 

 which we are acquainted, and the least capable of 

 abridgment, is submitted to our readers in the iden- 

 tical words of the eminent geographer, from whose 

 pen it proceeded. The Ganges " appears to owe 

 its increase as much to the rain water, that falls in 

 the mountains contiguous to its source, and to the 

 sources of the great northern rivers, that fall into it, 

 as to that which falls in the plains of Hindostan ; for 

 it rises iifteen feet and a half out of thirty-two (the 

 sum total of its rising} by the latter end of June ; 

 and it is well known, that the rainy season does not 

 begin in most of the flat countries till about that 

 time. In the mountains, it begins early in April ; 

 and by the latter end of that month, when the rain 

 water has reached Bengal, the rivers begin to rise, 

 though by very slow degrees ; for the increase is only 

 about one inch per day for the first fortnight. It 

 then gradually augments to two and three inches, 

 before any quantity of rain falls in the flat countries ; 

 and, when the rain becomes general, the increase, at 

 a medium, is five inches per day. By the latter end 

 of July, all the lower parts of Bengal, contiguous to 

 the Ganges and Burrampooter, are overflowed; and 

 form an inundation of more than a hundred miles in 

 width, nothing appearing but villages and trees, ex- 

 cepting very rarely the top of an elevated spot (the 

 artificial mound of some deserted village) appearing 

 like an island. But the inundations in Bengal are as 

 much occasioned by the rain that falls there as by 

 the waters of the Ganges; and as a proof of it, ttie 

 lands in general are overflowed to a considerable 

 height, long before the bed of the river is filled. It 

 must be remarked, that the ground adjacent to the 

 river bank, to the extent of some miles, is consider- 

 ably higher than the rest of the country ; and serves 

 to separate the waters of the inundation from those 

 of the river, until it overflows. This high ground is 

 in some seasons covered a foot or more; but the 

 height of the inundation within varies, of course, ac- 

 cording to the irregularities of the ground; and' is in 

 some places twelve feet. Even when the inundation 



becomes general, the river sfill shews itself, as well 

 by the grass and reeds on its banks, as by its rapid ' 

 and muddy stream ; for the water of the inundation 

 acquires a blackish hue, by having been so long stag- 

 nant, among grass and other vegetables ; nor does it 

 even lose this tinge, which is a proof of the pre- 

 dominancy of the rain-water over that of the river ; as 

 the slow rate of the motion of the inundation, (which 

 does not exceed half a mile per hour,) is of the re- 

 markable flatness of the country. There are parti- 

 cular tracts of lands, which, from the nature of their 

 culture, and species of productions, require less mois- 

 ture than others, and yet, by the lowuess of their situa- 

 tion, would remain too long inundated, were they not 

 guarded by dikes or dams, from so copious an inunda- 

 tion as would otherwise happen, from the great eleva- 

 tion of the surface of the river above them. Those 

 dikes are kept up at an enormous expense ; and yet 

 do not always succeed from want of tenacity in the 

 soil of which they are composed. It is calculated, 

 that the length of those dikes collectively amounts 

 to more than a thousand English miles. Some of 

 thefi, at the base, are equal to the thickness of an 

 ordinary rampart. One particular branch of the 

 Ganges (navigable only during the rainy season, but 

 then equal to the Thames at Chelsea) is conducted 

 between two of these dikes for about seventy miles ; 

 and when full, the passengers in the boats, look down 

 on the adjacent country, as from an eminence. Du- 

 ring the swollen state of the river, the tide totally 

 loses its effect of counteracting the stream ; and, in a 

 great measure, that of ebbing and flowing, excepting 

 near the sea. It is not uncommon for a strong wind, 

 that blows up the river for any continuance, to swell 

 the waters about two feet above the ordinary level at 

 that season, and such accidents have occasioned the 

 loss of whole crops of rice. A very tragical event 

 happened at Luckipour in 1763, by a strong gale of 

 wind conspiring with a high spring tide, at a season 

 when the periodical flood was within a foot and a 

 half of its highest pitch. It is said, that the waters 

 rose six feet above the ordinary level. Certain it is, 

 that the inhabitants of a considerable district, with 

 their houses and cattle, were totally swept away ; 

 and, to aggravate their distress, it happened in a part 

 of the country, which scarcely produces a single tree, 

 for a drowning man to escape to. Embarkations of 

 every kind traverse the inundation ; those bound up- 

 wards, availing themselves of a direct course and 

 still water, at a season when every stream rushes like 

 a torrent. The wind, too, which at this season blows 

 regularly from the south-cast, favours their progress ; 

 insomuch, that a voyage, which takes up nine or ten 

 days by the course of the river, when confined within 

 its banks, is now effected in six. Husbandry and 

 grazing are both suspended ; and the peasant tra- 

 verses in his boat those fields, which, in another sea- 

 son, he was wont to plow ; happy, that the elevated 

 site of the river banks places the herbage they con- 

 tain within his reach ; otherwise his cattle must 

 perish." " The inundation is nearly at a stand for 

 some days preceding the middle of August, when it 

 begins to run off; for although great quantities of 

 rain fall in the flat countries, during August and 

 September ; yet, by a partial cessation of the rains 

 in the mountains, there happens a deficiency in the 



Bcngiii. 



