474 



FLOODS AND DEPOSITS IN THE DELTA. 



[Ch. XIX. 



mud, which are annually deposited over many hundred 

 square miles in the Bay of Bengal. The inhabitants of the 

 land, which happen to be drowned or thrown into the water 

 are usually devoured by these voracious reptiles ; but we may 

 suppose the remains of the saurians themselves to be con- 

 tinually entombed in the new formations. The number, also, 

 of bodies of the poorer class of Hindoos thrown annually into 

 the Ganges is so great, that some of their bones or skeletons 

 can hardly fail to be occasionally enveloped in fluviatile mud. 

 It sometimes happens, at the season when the periodical 

 flood is at its height, that a strong gale of wind, conspiring 

 with a high spring-tide, checks the descending current of the 



From 



this cause, in the year 1763, the waters at Luckipour rose 

 six feet above their ordinary level, and the inhabitants of a 

 considerable district, with their houses and cattle, were 

 totally swept away. 



The population of all oceanic deltas are particularly exposed 

 to suffer by such catastrophes, recurring at considerable in- 



tervals of time ; and we may safely assume that such tragical 



river 



and gives rise to most destructive inundations. 



events have happened again and again, since the Gangetic 

 delta was inhabited by man. If human experience and fore- 

 thought cannot always guard against these calamities, still 

 less can the inferior animals avoid them; and the monu- 

 ments of such disastrous inundations must be looked for in 

 great abundance in strata of all ages, if the surface of our 

 planet has always been governed by the same laws. When 

 we reflect on the general order and tranquillity that reigns in 

 the rich and populous delta of Bengal, notwithstanding the 

 havoc occasionally committed by the depredations of the 

 ocean, we perceive how unnecessary it is to attribute the im- 

 bedding of successive races of animals in older strata to ex- 

 traordinary energy in the causes of decay and reproduction in 

 the infancy of our planet, or to those general catastrophes and 

 sudden revolutions so often resorted to. 



Deposits in the delta. — The quantity of mud held in suspen- 

 sion by the waters of the Ganges and Brahmapootra is found, 

 as might be expected, to exceed that of any of the rivers al- 

 luded to in this or the preceding chapters ; for, in the first 



V 



<fl 



% 



i 



;ne 





of * 







in th 

 the fl* 



char l. 



tie delt 



aawl 



ral si | 



jenili 



- 



deepen] 



M tt 



n 



veil- 



One 



Ae, 



*gto 



tip 



I 



Q 









ir 



Hn 



%v 





