GANGES. 217 



of rain falls in the flat covuitries ; and when the rain 

 becomes general, the increase on a medium is five inches 

 per day. Before the end of July all the lower parts of- 

 Bengal contiguous to the Ganges and Brahmapoutra are 

 overflowed, and form a lake of more than 100 miles in 

 breadth ; nothing appearing but villages and trees, except- 

 ing very rarely the top of an elevated spot, or the artiiicieJ 

 mound of some deserted village rising like islands in the 

 flood. 



The inundations in Bengal differ from those in Egypt in 

 this particular, that the Nile owes its floods entirely to the 

 rains that fall in the mountains near its source ; but in 

 Bengal they are as much occasioned by the rain that falls 

 in the country itself as by the waters of the Ganges ; and 

 as a proof of this, the lands in general are overflowed to a 

 considerable depth long before the bed of the river is filled. 

 It may be remarked that the ground adjacent to the bank, 

 to the extent of some miles, is considerably higher than the 

 rest of the country, and serves to separate the waters of 

 the inundation from those of the river until it overflows.* 

 The high ground is in some seasons covered a foot or 

 more ; but the depth in the lower country varies of course 

 according to the irregularities of the ground, and is in some 

 places twelve feet. Even when the flood becomes general, 

 the river still shows 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 stagnant among grass and other vegetables ; 

 nor does it ever lose this tinge, which is a proof of the 

 predominancy of the rain-water over that of the river» 

 The slow motion of the inundation, which does not exceed 

 half a mile per hour, is owing to the flatness of the country. 



There are certain tracts of land which require less 

 moisture than others, from the nature of their productions ; 

 these are defended from the floods by vast dikes, which are 

 kept up at an enormous expense. One branch of the Gan- 

 ges is thus confined to the breadth of the Thames at Bat- 



* This property of the bank is caused by the deposition of mtld from, 

 the waters of the river when it overflows. Tlie inundation, as Buffon 

 remarks, purities itself in its advance over the plain ; so that the de- 

 position must be greatest on the parts nearest to the margin of the 

 river. 



Vol. III.— T 



