﻿26 ON THE COURSE OF THE GANGES 



diftance is little more than a furlong; and as the vil- 

 lage nearly fills the whole fpace, boats pafs one fide 

 of It a confiderable time before they come to the 

 other ; for the diftance round is fix miles. See Plate 

 II. fg. 2. 



But the moft extraordinary of all the windings I 

 met with, was near Sibnibas^ where this river is pro- 

 jected into fix diltinft reaches, within the fpace of a 

 fquare mile, forming a kind of labyrinth^ fomewhat 

 refembling the fpiral form of the human ear. In this 

 were three necks of land, the broadeft of which little 

 exceeded one furlong. See Plate II. fig. 3. 



Every perfon who has travelled by water to the 

 upper provinces, muft remember the circuitous courfe 

 of the Baugrutty river, and the extraordinary twill 

 which it formerly had near Plaffey^ and alfo at Ran- 

 gamutty^* and between Cojfimbazar and the city of 

 MoorPiudabad. Some of thefe windings have been 

 removed, by cutting canals acrofs the narrow necks 

 of land, and thefe having been confiderably widened 

 and deepened by the ftream, are now become the real 

 bed of the river; the old channel being in fuch cafes 

 foon blocked up by fands, and frequently by a folid 

 bank acrofs the whole breadth of it. There is, how- 

 ever, no other advantage in making fuch cuts, than 

 that of rendering the pafl'age fomewhat fhorter by 

 water; for, in other refpefts, it is fometimes attended 

 with inconvenience to the natives who inhabit the 

 banks of the rivers, and fhould never be attempted, 

 but when fome valuable buildings, or lands, may be 

 faved by it; and it is a queftion worth confidering, 

 whether by fhortening the courfe of any river, we 

 may not render it lefs navigable; for the more a river 

 Avinds, the flower will be its currrnt, and confequently 

 its waters will not be drained off To foon. t Another 



effca 



* See Plate III. figs, i and 2. 



-•■ See Mr. Mann's Treaiile on Rivers and Canals, In the Phllofophical 

 Tianf-ictions for 1779. 



