﻿THROUGH BEN'GAL. 07 



cffetl of the fhortening of its courfe might be, that, 

 owing to the greater rapidity of the current a6lin<^ 

 againft the fides in a loofe foil, it might too much en- 

 large the capacity of its bed, the effeQ of which would 

 be to produce a proportionable degree of lliallownefs 

 in the middle of the ftream.* I cannot fay that this 

 has been the cafe at any of the places where cuts have 

 hitherto been made; but it is not improbable that the 

 greater velocity which they give to the current 

 throughout, might produce fuch an eifetl in oth^r 

 parts. 



The end which is propofed by cutting fuch canals, 

 is very often effefted by nature alone ; for the narrow 

 ifthmus between the oppofite reaches being gradually 

 ftraitened by the current wafhing away the bank on 

 both fides, it becomes at length too (lender to refift 

 the preffure of the waters in the rainy feafon, and is 

 burft open, f This no fooner happens, than the river 

 Avidens the breach, and foon renders it fufficiently ca- 

 pacious for the palfage of the whole of its waters ; in 

 uhich cafe, the old circuitous channel is abandoned, 

 and being foon fhut up at both ends, in the manner 

 pointed out above, continues in the form of a ftag- 

 nated j eel ox pool. I have feen feveral of thefejVe/5 

 near the banks of the Cojfimhazar and Ijpimutty rivers, 

 fome of which appeared to have exifted many years; 

 for they are not fo liable to be filled up as the deferted 

 reaches of the Ganges, whofe waters during the high 

 floods arc impregnated .with a much greater quantity 

 of fand and mud; and as in a hot climate, the effluvia 

 which arife from all fhagnated waters muft necefifarilv 

 infect the air, j this reafon alone fhould fufiiceto deter 



us 



* The great breadth of the Cojfimhazar river at Moorjhudabad, is the 

 principal caufe of us fiiallownefs at that place. 



+ See Plate II. h^. i ; and the Note in page 25. 



1 The jV/i?fy7/ lake was formerly one of the windings of the Co/Jimbazar 

 river. — Sec Major Rennell's Memoirs. Another of thefe fwamp-, or one 

 which might polfibly have been a part of that river at fome remote period, 

 n<v.v exir.s near Burrampour j and an attempt, though ineft'ectual. was lately 

 made to drain U- on account of its unwholefome exhalations. 



