216 RIVERS. 



RIVERS. 



' The rivers of India may be classed under t.wo divisions, 

 viz. those that flow from the Himmalehs, and those that 

 take their rise in the mountains of the peninsula. They 

 carry with them to the ocean, not only a vast body of water, 

 but an enormous quantity of the debris of the lands through 

 ■which they pass. The Himmaleh rivers, as the Indus, 

 Ganges, and Brahmapoutra, obtain their supply of water 

 partly from the snows and glaciers of the mountains, and 

 partly from the rains of the monsoons ; while those of the 

 peninsula are entirely supplied by the monsoon-rains. The 

 livers most celebrated in history and geography are the 

 Indus, Bralunapoutra, and Ganges ; the latter is the most 

 important to India as a great province of the British empire. 

 From its elevated source, nearly 1.5,000 feet above the level 

 of the sea, the Ganges winds through mountainous regions 

 for fully 800 miles, and issues into the open country at 

 Hurdwar, in latitude 30° north. During the remainder of 

 its course to the sea, which is about 1350 miles, flowing as 

 a smooth navigable stream through delightful plains, it 

 leceives eleven great rivers, some of which are equal to 

 the Rhine, and none smaller than the Thames, besides as 

 many others of less magnitude. It is owing to this vast 

 influx of streams that the Ganges in point of magnitude 

 so greatly excels the Nile, while the latter exceeds it in 

 length of course by one-third. Like the Nile, it has a vast 

 delta, which exhibits the usual characters of such alluvial 

 formations. To the natives the mundations of this river 

 are equally objects of interest, as are those of the Nile to 

 the Egyptians. These annual overflowings of the Ganges 

 are owing as much to the rains and to the melting of the 

 snow among the mountains beyond Hurdwar as to the rains 

 that fall in the plains ; for at the latter end of June the river 

 has risen fifteen feet and a half, out of thirty-two, the sum 

 total of its rising; 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, the rains commence early in 

 April, and near the latter end of that month, when the rain- 

 water has reached Bengal, the rivers beghi to rise, but by 

 Tery slow degrees ; for the increase is only about one inch 

 per day for the first fortnight. The increase then gradu- 

 ally augments to two and three inches, before any quantity 



