Vol. VI, No. 10.] The Rivers of the Delta. 549 



[N.S.] 



Bettury and Panchsurya, though many of them are merely 

 reformations in situ ; this naturally prevents a visual com- 

 parison with complete accuracy, but it may be assumed that 

 their position is approximately the same ; the local cultivator 

 has a genius for identifying a lost site. To explain this reach, 

 I attach a rough sketch map to show the course which the 

 river has taken. This map shows the line of Rennell's map 

 (roughly plotted), the line of the river 1787-8, the line in 1858, 

 and the present river bank, together with the limit to which 

 the river has cut, so far as can be judged, within this period. 

 It will be observed in the easterly reach that after a short 

 period of cutting soon after Rennell's survey, the whole river had 

 shifted N. by 1858 except at the actual junction with the 

 Jamuna where the course lay slightly to the South ; subsequently 

 the river has shifted further north throughout the reach, 

 with the result that the present junction of the rivers is practi- 

 cally identical with the junction as surveyed by Rennell ; 

 Maldaha (Maldo) and Char Natibpur 1 (Notypour) have both 

 reformed in original site ; rounding the bend, it may be noticed 

 that between 1763 and 1787-8 (the line of which can be plotted 

 accurately from an interesting old rubokari) the W. bank had 

 cut to the extent of about 1 mile ; this line curiously happens 

 to correspond with the limit of river action ; from that date, 

 the tendency of the river has been to move in an easterly direc- 

 tion, the present W. bank being in places as much as 4 miles 

 from the bank of 1787-8 ; it may be added that this bank is at 

 present cutting, but it is difficult to say whether this process 

 is more than temporary. The E. bank has cut in a correspond- 

 ing manner ; Rennell's Jamalpur, Allachypour, Soalto have all 

 disappeared ; the river bed has opened out to the breadth of 

 3| miles, a large part of which is occupied by Coronation Char, 

 a low-lying mass of sand, the predecessor of which may be 

 noticed in Rennell's map. Such are the facts ; it remains for 

 us to draw the inferences. It is not improbable that in the 

 Easterly reach, the limit of river action was reached soon after 

 Rennell's survey ; it is a definite fact that in the southerly 

 reach, the limit was arrived at by 1787-8. This date happens to 

 correspond with the date of the big change in the River Teesta, 

 i-e., the date at which the Brahmaputra probably commenced 

 sending its waters down the Jenai ; from this date we find that 

 the river began to move away from its Faridpur bank (i.e., 

 the S. and W. bank), except at its actual junction; in other 

 words the general tendency of the river since 1787 has been 

 to deposit its silt on the Faridpur bank, the tendency having 



villag 



river, but this would not affect the argument, as a variation of a mere 

 halt mile in a river course is not a discrepancy of much importance in 

 *he rapidly changing deltaic lands. 



