338 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. L^P r - 1> 



Goraie, instead of two miles above it on the Ganges as it originally 

 was, and was designed to be ; and if this sudden rapid rush at the 

 end of the rains can be maintained, it probably will suffice to keep 

 the river open, and so maintain the present statics. 



It will be easy to perceive how this effect takes place, if we bear in 

 mind that the fall of the country between Pubna and Jaffiergunge 

 (thirty-six miles) is only about seven feet ; and if all the waters 

 were supplied by one river, that would be their slope ; but if, at any 

 moment, the waters of the Brahmapootra should be seven feet lower 

 than those of the Ganges, the slope will be doubled ; and if ten feet, 

 the scour must be tremendous ; and it is believed that this was the 

 difference when the last bend was cut off. 



8. Kishnaghur Group of Rivers. — After the Jessore rivers just de- 

 scribed, the only other great group of distributaries of the Ganges is 

 that known as the Kishnaghur rivers, and consists of the Bhagaruttee, 

 Jellinghy, and Matabangah, which, uniting above Sooksaghur, form 

 the Hoogly. 



Of these the oldest is the first-named. Indeed, if we consult 

 either native traditions or internal evidence, it is the Ganges itself, 

 and bears the same sacred name here as it does at its source ; the 

 name Ganges, which is applied to the intermediate portion, merely 

 means Gunga or Gonga — the river " par excellence." 



Whether we look at it from a geological or an historical point of 

 view, there can be little doubt that the original river, after passing 

 Rajmahal, would naturally run southward, parallel, or nearly so, to 

 the course of the Brahmapootra at that time, the distance between the 

 two being probably under ninety miles. The intermediate space 

 would then have been fully occupied by the Coosy, Mahanuddee, 

 Atree, Teesta, and other Himalayan torrents, all of which were pro- 

 bably at that time tributaries to the Brahmapootra ; though, in con- 

 sequence of the extension of the delta, they have most of them 

 seceded to the Ganges. 



It is probable that the Bhagaruttee River, or true Ganges, always 

 flowed very nearly in the direction it now does, the extension of 

 the delta on the left being about sufficient to counterbalance the 

 repulsive action of the More, Adjie, Damooda, and Roopnarain, on 

 its right bank. There is, indeed, no improbability in supposing that 

 the original state of things may be, to a great extent, restored before 

 long. All the silt of the two great rivers has been employed for a 

 considerable time in raising the eastern half of the delta, and as that 

 rises it throws the waters westward ; and though we can hardly con- 

 template the Great Ganges flowing again past Moorshedabad, there 

 is every reason to suppose that the body of water flowing through 

 the Kishnaghur rivers will largely and steadily increase. 



It is not very easy to ascertain now which were the earliest as- 

 sistants of the Bhagaruttee in distributing the waters of the Ganges ; 

 but, of those which have left any traces, three may be mentioned as 

 the best known. The first of these was the Coomar, mentioned be- 

 fore, and running E.S.E. nearly parallel to the bed occupied by the 

 Ganges fifty years ago ; the Boyrub, running south-east ; and the 



