﻿4 ON THE COURSE OF THE GANGES 



When the inundation is gone off, and the river has 

 fubfided to its ordinary level in the dry feafon, confi- 

 derable fand-banks are frequently found in places 

 v.hcre, but the preceding year, the channel had been 

 deep, and perfectly navigable. Thefe gatherings of 

 fand are fometimes fo confiderable, as to divert the 

 principal ftream into a new, and, in general, a more 

 direct courfe; for it is only by the encroachments on 

 the bank that inflexions in the ftream are produced ; 

 v^^hile the fudden alluvions, and frequent depofitions 

 of fand, have a tendency to fill up the channel into 

 which it had been diverted, and to reftore the (traight- 

 nefs of its courfe. Such of the iflands as are found, 

 on their firft appearance, to have any foil, are imme- 

 diately cultivated; and water melons, cucumbers, 

 3.ndfurfoo, or muftard, become the produce of the 

 firft year.. It is not uncommon even to fee rice grow- 

 ing in thofe parts where a quantity of mud has been 

 depofitcd near the water's edge. 



Some of thefe iflands, before they have acquired a 

 degree of ftability which might enable them to refifl 

 the force of the ftream, are entirely fwept away; but 

 whenfoever, by the repeated additions of foil, they 

 appear to be fufRciently firm, the natives then no 

 longer hefitate to take poffefTion of them, and the new 

 lands become an immediate fubje£t of altercation and 

 difpute. The new fettlers bring over their families, 

 cattle, and effefts; and having fele6ted the higheft 

 fpots for the fites of their villages, they erett their 

 dwellings with as much confidence as they would do 

 on the main land; for, although fixed upon a fandy 

 foundation, the ftratum of foil which is uppermoft, 

 bein^ interwoven with the roots of grafs, and of 

 other plants, and hardened by the fun, becomes at 

 length fufficiently firm to refift the future attacks of 

 the river. Thus ftrengthened and matured, thefe 

 iflands will continue a number of years, and may laft 



during 



