40 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO 1781. 



productions; and secondarily by enriching the adjacent lands, and affording an 

 easy means of transport for the productions of its borders. 



In its course through the plains, it receives eleven rivers, some of which are 

 equal to the Rhine, and none smaller than the Thames, besides as many others 

 of less note. It is owing to this vast influx of streams, that the Ganges exceeds 

 the Nile so greatly in point of magnitude, while the latter exceeds it in length 

 of course by one-third. Indeed the Ganges is inferior, in this last respect, to 

 many of the northern rivers of Asia; though probably it discharges as much or 

 more water than any of them, because those rivers do not lie within the limits 

 of the periodical rains.* 



The bed of the Ganges is very unequal in point of width. From its first 

 arrival in the plains at Hurdvvar, to the conflux of the Jumnah, the first river of 

 note that joins it, its bed is generally from a mile to a mile and a quarter wide; 

 and, compared with the latter part of its course, tolerably straight. Hence, 

 downward, its course becomes more winding, and its bed consequently wider, 

 till, having alternately received the waters of the Gogra, Soane, and Gunduck, 

 besides many smaller streams, its bed has attained its full width ; though, during 

 the remaining 600 miles of its course, it receives many other principal streams. 

 Within this space it is, in the narrowest parts of its bed, half a mile wide, and 

 in the widest, 3 miles; and that, in places where no islands intervene. The 

 stream within this bed is always either increasing or decreasing, according to the 

 season. When at its lowest, which happens in April, the principal channel 

 varies from 400 yards to a mile and a quarter; but is commonly about 3 quarters 

 of a mile. It is fordable in some places above the conflux of the Jumnah, but 

 the navigation is never interrupted. Below that, the channel is of considerable 

 depth, for the additional streams bring a greater accession of depth than width. 

 At 500 miles from the sea, the channel is 30 feet deep when the river is at its 

 lowest; and it continues at least this depth to the sea, where the sudden expan- 

 sion of the stream deprives it of the force necessary to sweep away the bars of 

 sand and mud thrown across it by the strong southerly winds; so that the prin- 

 cipal branch of the Ganges cannot be entered by large vessels. About 220 miles 

 from the sea, but 300 reckoning the windings of the river, commences the head 

 of the Delta of the Ganges, which is considerably more than twice the area of 

 that of the Nile. The two westernmost branches, named the Cossimbuzar and 



* The proportional lengths of course of some of the most noted rivers in die world are shown 

 nearly in the following numbers: 



European rivers: Thames 1; Rhine 5l; Danube?; Wolga 9j- — Asiatic rivers: Indus :>',■ 

 Euphrates 8h; Ganges yi ; Burrampooter y J ; Nou Kian, or Ava river S £ J Jennisea 10 3 Oby 10£; 

 Amoor I 1 ; Lena I I .J ; Hoanho (of China) I3j ; Kian Keu (of ditto) 15J. — African river: Nile 12 J. 

 American rivers: Mississippi 8; Amazons 15|. — Orig. 



