﻿£i> ON THE COURSE OF THE GANGES 



US from anticipating nature in a matter which, with 

 fuch apparent difadvantages, has nothing more to re- 

 commend it, than the fhortening by a few miles the 

 navigation of a river. 



The reaches of the fmall rivers are not all equally 

 winding, and liable to change; but fome are found to 

 run with tolerable flraightnefs for feveral miles. In 

 fuch parts, their channels appear to have been perma- 

 nently fettled for ages, and to have every appearance 

 of continuing fo; for the current proceeding at a (low 

 and fteady rate, in a direction parallel to the fliores, 

 docs not encroach upon the banks, which are here 

 generally doping, and firm. The fires of many of the 

 principal towns, and villages, along their banks, have 

 been ellabiiflied on fuch fpots; as Mcor/hudabad, 

 Churkah, Chozvragatchy, Mutyaree, Dyahaut, and 

 fome others on the Baugrutty ; and Bungoung^ Ma- 

 role, and Taldaky, on the Ijfainutty. Nor is it eafy 

 to conceive any thing more beautiful than the view of 

 fome of ihefe reaches, particularly where the banks 

 are fhaded by large trees, and enriched with temples, 

 gauts, and other buildings, or fometimes clothed with 

 verdure down to the water's edge. 



At the turning between the feveral reaches, we fre- 

 quently find large pools, where the water is confi- 

 derably deeper, and where alfo the breadth of the 

 channel is much greater than in other parts. I am 

 inclined to think, that thefe are not always produced 

 by the mere operation of the current, but are fome- 

 times owing to cavities, or fmall lakes, which exifted 

 before the river, by the fhifting of its bed, had worked 

 a pafl'age through them; particularly as in fome we 

 find a lla-t or fhelving fhore on the concave or outer 

 fide of the pool, and a ftcep jutting point at the oppo- 

 fite angle, which is the very reverie of what is pro- 

 duced by the natural agency of the ftrcam; for in 

 other places v;e ufually find the itccp bank deepeft 

 water, and confequently the greatcfh velocity of the 



current 



