THE EARTH. ],:i 



from Tartaiyj and running through the domiiiioiis of the Great 

 Mogul, dis(;harges itself by several mouths into the bay of Ben- 

 gal. It is not only esteemed by the Indians for the depth and 

 pureness of its stream, but for a supposed sanctity which they 

 believe to be in its waters. It is visited annually by several 

 hundred thousand pilgrims, who pay their devotions to the river 

 as to a god : for savage simplicity is always known to mistake 

 the blessings of the Deity, for the Deity himself. They carrj 

 their dying friends from distant countries, to expire on its banks; 

 and to be buried in its stream. The water is lowest in April 

 or JMay ; but the rains beginning to fall soon after, the flat coim- 

 try is overflowed for several miles, till about the end of Sep- 

 tember ; the waters then begin to retire, leaving a prolific sedi- 

 raeni behind, that enriches the soil, and, in a few days' time, 

 gives a luxuriance to vegetation, beyond what can be conceived 

 by a European. Next to this may be reckoned the still more 

 celebrated river Euphrates. This rises from two sources, 

 northward of the city Erzerum, in Turcomania, and unites about 

 three days' journey below the same ; from whence, after per- 

 forming a course of five hundred leagues, it falls into the gulf 

 of Persia, fifty miles below the city of Bassora in Arabia. The 

 river Indus is extended, from its source to its discharge into the 

 Arabian Sea, four hundred leagues. 



The largest rivers of Africa are, the Senegal, which runs a 

 course of not less than eleven hundred leagues, comprehending 

 the Niger, which some have supposed to fall into it. However, 

 later accounts seem to aflirm that the Niger is lost in the sands, 

 about three hundred miles up from the western coasts of Af- 

 rica.* Be this as it may, the Senegal is well known to be 



the Ganges, about 40 miles from the sea. It is larger than the Gauges, and 

 diiriug the last 60 miles, before itforms a junction with that river, its width 

 is regularly from four to five miles, and, but for its freshness, might pass for 

 an arm of the sea. Major Rennel was the original discoverer that the San- 

 poo, of Thibet, is the same with the Burrarapooter. Before that time the 

 SanpiM) had been supposed to discharge into the sea by the Gulf of Ava. 



* Many attempts have been made to determine the course of the Niger both 

 by geographers and travellers in ancient as well as modern times ; but we are 

 yet involved in the darkness of conflicting theories and ccutradictory reports. 

 The very direction of this river was for a long period a debateable question. 

 The Arabs of the middle ages attributed to the Niger a westward course to ' the 

 Sea of DarkoefS,' or the Atlantic. They also conceived iha* the Niger and the 

 Nilesprnngfrora the same origin. Leo -Africanus, however acknowledges tliat 



