1863.] EERGUSSON DELTA OF TILE GANGES. 335 



several places above the junction. As the Brahmapootra has an 

 oscillation of seven or eight miles, while the Ganges has only one of 

 five miles at that place, and as even that is gradually diminishing, 

 it must have been successful if the Ganges had been able to find 

 another outlet. This, however, was not so easy, the whole of the 

 country to the southward and westward having been traversed 

 repeatedly by powerful rivers, and the country consequently well 

 raised and consolidated. 



The Chandna was the first river it met above the junction, from 

 which it could look for relief. This river, however, was old, its 

 oscillation short, and its banks high and consolidated. But, even if 

 it could have been opened, its natural outlet to the eastward, the 

 Coomar, was older still, and less likely to give way ; from a two- 

 or three-mile oscillation, which can still easily be traced, it had 

 sunk to one averaging half a mile or less. No water runs through 

 it in the dry weather, and during the inundation the flow is so 

 sluggish that all the silt it receives is spread on its own banks ; 

 consequently it has raised its district higher than any of the sur- 

 rounding country. 



Proceeding up the stream, the next river was the Goraie. This 

 was more tractable ; it was not originally a distributary, but a local 

 stream, draining some jheels — it was consequently only at its head 

 that its banks were at all stiff or consolidated ; lower down the land 

 was low, and the river divided into several branches, each of which 

 could be opened out separately. Even its upper reaches were so tract- 

 able, that, from a width of 600 feet, at which it stood in 1828, it has 

 increased to 1908, which is now the least width at the lowest season. 

 The next river upwards was the Upper Coomar. It has not been 

 opened to the same extent for the reasons just stated ; but, as the 

 pressure the Ganges could bring to bear upon it was infinitely greater 

 than could be effected by the Chandna on its lower division, it has 

 been opened and increased from 330 to 792 feet, and both these rivers 

 are still increasing. 



When these three came together above Baboocally, there were 

 several courses open to them ; the most natural one — for the Coomar 

 at least — would have been to have opened the Novo Gunga. Though 

 called new, this, however, was the next oldest stream of the district, 

 after the Coomar. Its oscillation is only half a mile, and its banks 

 are consolidated and thickly inhabited ; and though, no doubt, some 

 of its reaches might have been lengthened, still if, at any one place, 

 two or three oscillations are so stiff that they cannot be extended, 

 they govern the whole ; and as there are several such in this river, 

 its increase was hopeless. 



The Barassya looked more favourable, and a part of its bed was 

 actually appropriated and widened ; but there were two oscillations 

 opposite Muddenderry Factory which were in such stiff soil that they 

 could not be extended, and, though the river has been somewhat 

 widened and deepened, it remains now practically the same as when 

 Eennell surveyed it. 



To any one unacquainted with the habits of rivers, it will imme- 



