154 G A N G E T I C H I N D O O S T A N. 



tant of the tiger. Bontius even fays, that the Indians have a 

 popular notion that there is between the two animals a ftrong 

 friendlliip. The fact is, the rhinoceros repairs to wet places 

 out of love of rolling itfelf like a hog in the mire; the other 

 retires here from the burning heats, or to quencii its raging 

 thirft. The Rhinoceros, when provoked, is a moft dangerous 

 enemy, and extremely fwift. A gentleman of my acquaintance, 

 once in the fervice of the Company, had landed on one of thefe 

 iflands, and roufed a Rhinoceros, which ruflied on him, flung 

 him down, and ripped open his belly ; the animal proceeded 

 without doing him any farther injury ; the gentleman furvived 

 the wound, and lived to a very advanced age. Cujjs made of 

 the horns are reputed to communicate to the liquor poured in 

 them an antidote againft poifons. Bontius fpeaks frequently of 

 the fcrapings of the horn as a remedy in feveral difeafes. 



Let me here mention that the duty on the fait made here, 

 and in different parts of this province, produces, as ufual in all 

 countries, a vaft revenue. In Bengal it yields annually >r. 430,000;. 

 and the woods are inexhauftible magazines for boat building, to 

 carry on the vaft commerce of the Ganges, and its contributory 

 ftreams. 

 Natural The natural hiftory of this lingular tradl lliall now engage 



History, 



my attention : — The tides, and vaft bores, or leading waves, the 

 current, and annual inundations fnall be referved till my return 

 from the fountain of this vaft river ; I mean, after my flight view 

 of the zoology of the Sunderbund, at once to gain the head of the 

 Ganges, to defcend the ftream, and in the pallage note its parti- 

 cularities, or thole of the great rivers which augment its waters. 

 * When' 



