1863.] FEKGUSSON DELTA OP THE GANGES. 339 



Echamuttee, taking an intermediate course between the last-named 

 and the Hoogly, whose course is due north and south. As mentioned 

 above, the lower part of the first-named river was cut off by the 

 Chandna, and it then dried. The upper half long remained moribund, 

 but was revived by the late invasion of the Brahmapootra. The 

 second was extinguished, probably some 300 or 400 years ago, by 

 the Jellinghy, which, when the slope of the delta towards the east 

 became less, turned its waters from the south-east to south by west, 

 and with them joined the Bhagaruttee at Nuddea, the Nyadwipa 

 of olden times — a new island when the neighbourhood was a sea, 

 or at least a tidal swamp. The third was nearly meeting a like fate 

 from the Matabungah, which, appropriating a part of the bed of 

 the Coomar, and then a part of the Echamuttee, opened out the 

 Choornee nullah of Rennell, and joining the Hoogly above Sooksa- 

 ghur, it promises, if not checked, to play an important part in the 

 fluviatile history of the delta. 



The cause of the recent increase of the Matabungah is, of course, 

 the action of the Brahmapootra on the lower Ganges, and its inabi- 

 lity to open up the Goomar suddenly, or the Echamuttee, which is 

 an old and thoroughly settled river, with high consolidated banks 

 and very short oscillations. Its success, however, will mainly depend 

 on whether it can so open out the Hoogly as to admit of its taking off 

 the extra supply of water it may bring down. Whatever the ulti- 

 mate result may be, it began vigorously. At Sooksaghur there was a 

 noble country-house, built by Warren Hastings, about a mile from the 

 banks of the Hoogly. When I first knew it in 1830, half the avenue 

 of noble trees, which led from the river to the house, was gone ; 

 when I last saw it, some eight years afterwards, the river was close 

 at hand. Since then, house, stables, garden, and village are all 

 gone, and the river was on the point of breaking through the 

 narrow neck of high land that remained, and pouring itself into 

 some weak-banked nullahs in the low lands beyond ; and,, if it had 

 succeeded, the Hoogly would have deserted Calcutta. At this junc- 

 ture the Eastern Bengal Railway Company intervened. They were 

 carrying their works along the ridge, and they have, for the moment 

 at least, stopped the oscillation in this direction. If they are able 

 to do so in future, it will remain to be seen whether the Matabangah 

 has the power to open out the reaches of the Hoogly so as to take 

 off the water ; but this I doubt. The river is old, its banks are high 

 and much built upon, and great sums of money would be spent in 

 groins and embankments to stop its encroachments. These may be 

 successful ; in which case it must open up the Echamuttee, or break 

 through somewhere and get behind Calcutta. This might not be a 

 serious misfortune for that city; indeed, the Hoogly becoming a 

 mere tidal estuary like those of the Sunderbuns, without any silt- 

 bearing streams flowing into it, would be an advantage, were it 

 not that lower down there are two rivers, the Damooda and the 

 Roopnarain, which would probably, during the rains, be able to shut 

 it up if there was not a very heavy counterbalancing pressure from 

 the Kishnaghur rivers to keep it open. 



