540 Word's Report on the Biver Indus. [No. 115. 



" Progress is more easy and safe up the Ganges during the dry 

 season. There is little danger at any time in ascending the streams, 

 but much in coming down ; most during the dry season, when the 

 channels are all defined, and the commanders are instructed to come 

 with great caution, dropping through the difficult reaches with the head 

 of the boats up the stream. They are instructed to consider the pre- 

 servation of the boats the first consideration ; speed a secondary one. 

 In the dry season, the voyage downwards frequently occupies sixteen 

 or seventeen days ; in the swell five, six, seven, and ten ; the upward 

 voyage during the greatest strength of the current occupies from twen- 

 ty-five to thirty days ; at other times nineteen to twenty-three, and 

 twenty-five in the swell. The current of the Ganges is seven miles in 

 the dry season. 



" The boats in the swell can generally evade the strength of the cur- 

 rent by running over, or on the edge of sands ; in the dry season they 

 must generally encounter it in full force. 



*' There is an establishment of Pilots, (native fishermen.) The dis- 

 tances vary from eighteen to twenty-six miles, through which they are 

 required to be acquainted with the channels ; nevertheless, a boat seldom 

 makes a voyage without grounding, and the principal injury the boats 

 sustain, is coming in contact ; under these circumstances, it is nearly 

 confined to the superstructure. On one occasion only a pair of boats 

 suffered under water, being thrown against rocks by a strong eddy when 

 descending under steam; each boat had a hole forced through the 

 bottom ; they were easily stopped, the injury being confined to the por- 

 tion of metal actually in contact with the rock. A wooden boat would 

 have been shattered by the concussion. 



" It would not be possible to construct wooden boats to retain their 

 form as the light draft the iron boats do ; and I can conceive no means 

 of improving on the boats we have, limited, as by the nature of the 

 rivers we are, to length and draft of water. I believe, that for the 

 Ganges above Allahabad it will be in my power to fix a steam boat 

 not to draw more than 22 inches, with 24 hours' fuel, the economy of 

 weight will be confined to the superstructure, the iron hull being the 

 same in point of form and dimensions as those now plying, the metal 

 a little higher." (Signed) James H. Johnston. 



