150 GANGETIC HINDOOSTAN. 



mouth is placed by Ftolemy as the fecond. Is there any reafoii 

 to fuppofe its having been long fince fliut up, and the Hoogly 

 river fo widened as to become fince that time the principal. 



The Os Camborichutn is the third, now alfo clofed ; the PJeu- 

 dojlimum, the fourth. The laft mouth mentioned by Ftolejny is 

 the AntiboUs, which feems the fame with the mouth now called 

 the river Ganges^ the chief branch which gave name to the vaft 

 bay, the Gangeticus Sinus, the modern bay of Bengal. 



There are even at prefent eight openings, each of which 

 may have been in its time a principal mouth of the river. Tliis 

 feems evident by the rivers which finifli in thefe openings, and 

 point northward towards the main channel, but none reach the 

 mother river excepting the Hocringotta. Mr. Rennel clearly ex- 

 prefles the courfe of thefe antient difcharges. Anquetil du Per- 

 ron gives, a bold uninterrupted channel to each*. The banks 

 of mud or fand are conftantly forming at the diftance of twenty 

 miles from the iflands ; fome are only a few feet below the fur- 

 face ; in a fmall time they will appear above water, and by freih 

 additions form new illes, and add fucceffively to the depth of 

 the Delta. The head of the Delta is at Jeliingby, two hundred 

 and twenty miles from the fea in a ftrait line. This branch of 

 the Ganges is called at firft the Cqffimbuzar and Jellingby rivers, 

 and lower down alTumes that of the Hoogly. The CoJJlmbuzar 

 is dry from OBober to May. The Jellingby is unnavigable dur- 

 ing two of the drieft months. The voyage up thefe branches 

 muft therefore be undertaken at the clofe of the rainy feafon. 

 The only fubordinate branch of the Ganges, which is at all 



* C;irte Generale, in his Recherches Hiftoiique, &c. 



times 



