THE HUMAN SPECIES. 113 



entirely, or already partially, in conflict with the waves. 

 Annually, immense expense is incurred to defend Madras from 

 the menacing sea ; and even the black pagoda, notorious for 

 the inhuman religious practices in honor of Juggernaut, is 

 threatened with a similar fate ; and Hindoo legends tell of a 

 primeval temple now beneath the sands. 



THE GANGES. 



In the Bay of Bengal, where the Ganges is reported to dis- 

 charge, per day, solid matter equal in cubic bulk to the great 

 pyramid of Egypt, and the Sunderbunda or Calingas form a 

 delta of immense breadth, no further extension is observed sea- 

 ward ; but, according to Major Rennell, a vast surface of land, 

 with the ancient city of Bengalla, once seated at the eastern- 

 most branch of the river, has been submerged in deep water. 



Though the peninsula is perpetually disturbed by earth- 

 quakes, Allahabad offers one of the few indications of volcanic 

 action, above the surface, by the thermal waters, observed in a 

 deep cave, where " the tree of Adam continues to bud ;" and 

 beyond the Brahmaputra, a naphtha spring, in perpetual igni- 

 tion, is held in veneration even in Thibet. 



AUSTRALASIA. 



On the east side of the Bay of Bengal, down to the 

 extremity of further India, the shore, rich in alluvial deposits, 

 brought down by the great rivers from Indo-China, repels the 

 western monsoon, and maintains a powerful seaward vegeta- 

 tion ; but where the Malay peninsula extends towards the great 

 Australian islands, volcanic disturbances again become predom- 

 inant, presenting, in their extent, above fifty craters in fearful 

 activity. Disruption and submersion of what may have been 

 a continent, a kind of counterpart to South America, may be 

 surmised, by the shallowness of some parts of the sea, and the 

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