232 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [November, 1905. 
It will be noticed that all sharp bends of the river are in the 
uvium, and that the main direction of the river’s course is 
stant for long periods of time, owing to the fact that it is deter- 
mined by the bends in the old alluvium, hich alter very slowly. 
There is no historical record of the river ever having been at 
any distance from either Zamania, Ghazipur or Chausa, although 
the configuration of the “ Khadir” shows that, at some 
period, it must have been several miles distant from each of these 
laces. 
z he same probably holds true of both Benares and Chunar. 
me place j 
though it is clear, from the island of the old alluvium just oppo- 
site, that, at one time, the Ganges must have been flowing a con- 
siderable distance to the north, and the confluence of the Ganges 
radical alteration inthe course of the Ganges in the ha 
District for close on four hundred years. 
t Chochakpur there has been very little alteration in the 
course of the river. The configuration of the “ Khadir” in the 
reach between Chochakpur and Zamania can be accounted for by 
Yager that between Chochakpur and Karanda the river origi- 
flowed nearly east to west, and that the great + bend 
Cann mia has been the result of gradual and continuous erosiol 
by the river. 
The distance between Karanda and the point of the bend 4! 
ager is 72 miles or 39,000 feet. 
wing 4,600 feet as the original width of the river, this 
andi vist a distance of 35 ,000 feet which has been eroded by® the 
river. 
The first survey was made of the district in 1840. 
that time to 1872 Mr. Oldham records in his Memoirs = the 
Ghazipur een that the annual rate of erosion was 12 feet 
(vide p. 3 of Oldham’s Memoirs of the ee: District). gin? 
the last survey, made in 1882, the annual rate of erosion has 
been 9 feet. This gives an average of close on “ll feet a year for 
the last 64 years. 
At this rate the erosion - the Zamania bend would require 
about 3,200 years. At the Zamania bend the soil is the ordina'y 
stiff clay found in the district without any kunkar reefs. There 
is, however, a shee reef at Zamania town, and very solid ‘un 
kar reefs at Ghazi 
other noteworthy feature shown by the map is the island 
of old alluvium opposite Chausa surrounded on all sides by the 
It in stated in Mr. Oldham’s Memoirs that a similar island 
