GANGES. 
or twenty yards broad, the current moderate, and waist » 
deep. But the access beyond this. place is much ob- 
structed by snows, The pilgrims, those who re- 
side in the vicinity of Gangoutri, and who gain a liyeli- 
hood by bringing water from the spot, say that the 
road is only le for a few miles, when the current 
is entirely concealed under heaps of snow, which no 
traveller ever has surmounted, or can surmount... This 
river assuming the name of the Bhagirathi, continues 
to flow from the north till it meets the waters of the 
Alacananda from the east. Their united streams at the 
town of Devaprayaga, in North Lat. 30° 8’ 6”’, form 
the Ganges. Thus it appears that the Alacananda, 
which rises at a place ed Bhadinath, in North Lat. 
30° 42’ 28", a est Long. 80° 18’ 22”, divides with 
the Bhagirathi the honour of forming the sacred river. 
The contrast of these two rivers is remarkable. . The 
Bhagirathi rushes down a steep declivity, foaming over 
large stones and fragments in its bed, while the placid 
Alacananda flows with a smooth and unruffled wave, 
till it unites its murmurs with the boisterous torrent of 
its sister stream. The breadth of the former is 112 
feet, and it is said to rise 40 feet in the rains. It is 
crossed by a bridge of ropes, elevated 52 feet above the 
level of the water, 
The spot where the Ganges enters the plains, after 
forcing its way Peale: an. extensive tract of moun- 
tainous country, is called Hairu’ca Pairi, situated at 
the extremity of the town of Hurdwar, and is regard- 
ed with peculiar veneration by the Hindoos. Hither 
an annual pilgrimage is made by people from all parts 
of Hindostan and the Deccan, forthe purpose of ablu- 
tion in the sacred stream. The bathing commences on 
the 10th of April, Every twelfth year is celebrated 
with ter rejoicings, and is called Cumbla Meba, 
from the planet Jupiter being then in the sign Aqua- 
rius. A fair is held here, and numbers repair to it 
merely from commercial motives. Merchants from the 
Penjab, Cabul, Cashmere, and other places, furnish mer- 
chandize, and from this mart the principal cities in the 
Duab, Delhi, and Lucknow, are supplied. . At: this 
Season, sometimes two millions of people are collected. 
The temple containing the idol rises from the bed of 
the river. It is a plain building, surmounted by two 
cupolas. No pe setae ceremony is observed at. the 
Those 
four feet deep, the women plu in without hesita- 
tion, and both pes 
tion is performed, the men whose fathers are dead, and 
sie! undergo tonsure, 
strewed in some frequented path, with the superstitious 
idea, that good or bad fortune is indicated by the per- 
105 
a, Carnaprayaga, and Nandapraya, Besides its 
conatiey, the Gomes is much Biden By for its medi- 
cinal properties, and drank on this. account by Maho- 
medans, 
The Ganges and Brahmapootra rivers,. with their 
numerous branches and tributaries, intersect the coun- 
try of Bengal in such a variety of directions, as to form 
the most complete and easy inland navigation imagin- 
able. So equally and admirably di are Nae 
tural canals, over a country approaching to a_ perfect 
plain, that 4-5ths of Bengal may be safely said to be 
so well watered, as to command some navigable stream, 
evenjin the dry season, within a distance of 25 miles. 
This, inland navigation employs. upwards of 30,000 
Ganges. 
—— 
Inland ng-- 
vigation. 
boatmen. ;,And_ when it is considered that all the salt, . 
and most of the food consumed by so large a popula- 
tion, is transported by water within Bengal and its. 
dependencies, and at, the same time that the commer- 
fm bata and imports, the interchange of manufac- 
tures and products throughout the country, the fisheries, 
and travelling, are all carried on by this means, it be- 
comes.less a matter of surprize that the inland naviga- 
tion should employ such a number of hands, 
The Ganges, on escaping from the mountains, flows 
with a smooth navigable stream, through delightful 
plains, during its course to the sea, ‘diffusing plenty 
over the adjacent lands, and. affording every acility 
for the transport of the productions of its borders. Nor 
is it unimportant in a military point of view ; opening 
a communication between-the different posts, it serves 
as a military way through the country, and renders un- 
necessary the formation of magazines: 2 
After the Ganges issues from the mountains near 
-Hurdwar, to the conflux with the Jumna-at Allaha- 
bad, (the first large river that it meets), its bed varies 
from a mile to one mile and a quarter in breadth. 
From thence its course becomes more circuitous, and 
its channel wider, till having received successively 
the Goggrah, the Soane, and the Gunduck, besitles 
many smaller streams, its channel attains it? full 
width 3 and though afterwards in some places it nar- 
rows to half a mile, yet where no islands inter- 
vene, it'extends to’a breadth of three miles. When 
at’ its lowest, the principal channel varies from 400 
yards to 1}th mile wide, and commonly is about Sths 
of a mile in breadth. The Ganges is fordable at some 
Places above its »conflux with the Jumna, but the na- 
vigation is never interrupted. At 500 miles from the 
sea, the channel is 30 feet deep when the river is low- 
est ; and this. depth continues to the sea, where the 
sudden expansion of the stream deprives it of force 
sufficient to sweep away the bars of sand and mud 
thrown across it by the strong southerly winds, so that 
the principal branch of the Canis cannot be entered 
by large vessels, 
In its course through the plains, the Ganges receives 
11 rivers, some of which are equal in size to the Rhine, 
and none smaller than the Thames, besides as many 
more of lesser note. To this vast influx of water, it is 
owing that the Ganges exceeds the Nile so much in 
point of magnitude, while the latter exceeds it by one 
third in length of course, 
The general descent of the Ganges does not exceed 
four inches per mile ; and the mean rate of motion, in 
the dry season, is less than three miles an hour. In the 
wet season, whilst the waters are running off from the 
inundated lands, the current flows from five to six miles 
an hour, and in particular circumstances and situations, 
QO, 
Conflux 
with the 
Jamnac 
Its breadrli 
and depth: 
Taffux of 
rivers inte 
the Ganges. 
Its descent 
and motion 
