﻿THROUGH BENGAL. '7 



The banks of the Ganges exhibit' a variety of ap- 

 pearances, according to the nature of the foil, or the 

 degree of force with which the current ftrikes againit 

 them. In thofe parts where the velocity of the ftream 

 is greatefl, and the foil extremely loofe, they become 

 as perpendicular as a wall, and crumble in fo fre- 

 quently, that it is dangerous to approach them. The 

 bank is oftentimes excavated into a number of deep 

 bays, with projetting points between them, round 

 ^vhich the current ruflies with great rapidity; but is 

 confiderablv fiackened, and has even a retrograde 

 motion, in the interior part of the gulph. * Some of 

 thefe afford convenient landing places, or Gauts, 

 where the natives perform their ablutions, water their 

 cattle, and faften their boats to the fliore. In other 

 parts, where the current is flack, the bank is generally 

 found doping and firm. In the higher parts of the 

 country, where a co?zifrt foil prevails, the banks of 

 the Ganges are not fo liable to be undermined, and 

 are even fufficiently firm to refift the utmoft efforts of 

 the flream; but in Bengal there are few places where 

 a town, or village, can be eftablifhed on the Ganges, 

 with any certainty of long retaining the advantage of 

 fuch a fituation, as it will be liable cither to be de- 

 ftroyed by the river, or, on the contrary, to be to- 

 tally abandoned by it. There are fome fpots, how- 

 ever, which are not fubje8; to the former inconve- 

 nience, and here the fites of fome principal places;, 

 and manufacturing towns, have been effabliflied; as 

 Godagary, Comerpour, Beauleah, and Surdah, built 

 upon a ridge of high ground running along the N. E. 

 fide of the Ganges, and which appears to be the ex- 

 treme boundary of the river on that fide. The foil of 



A 4 this 



* Thefe little bays or gulpbs are very common in all the rivers of ^ 

 Bengal, and are owina, probably, to the unequal encroachment of the 

 ftream on the banks in thofe places where the foil has the leall tenacity. 

 They naturally produce a whirling motion in the current ; antl may pofh- 

 bly, in fome inllances, be the means of checking the further encroachment 

 of the river ; but I have never known an inftance of their linking out uuu 

 nevw' branches, as Major Rennell has fuppofed. 



f A hard reddilh calcareous- earth. 



