252 RAMPORE-BAULEAH. Chap. XXVIII. 



greatly indebted for furthering us on our voyage : boats 

 being very difficult to procure, we were, however, detained 

 here from the 16th to the 19th. I was fortunate in being 

 able to compare my barometers with a first-rate standard 

 instrument, and in finding no appreciable alteration since 

 leaving Calcutta in the previous April. The elevation of 

 the station is 130 feet above the sea, that of Kishengunj 

 I made 131 ; so that the Gangetic valley is nearly a dead 

 level for fully a hundred miles north, beyond which it rises ; 

 Titalya, 150 miles to the north, being 360 feet, and 

 Siligoree, at the margin of the Terai, rather higher. The 

 river again falls more considerably than the land ; the 

 Mahanuddy, at Kishengunj, being about twenty feet 

 below the level of the plains, or 1 1 above the sea ; whereas 

 the Ganges, at Rampore, is probably not more than eighty 

 feet, even when the water is highest. 



The climate of Rampore is marked by greater extremes 

 than that of Calcutta : during our stay the temperature rose 

 above 106°, and fell to 78° at night : the mean was 

 %\° higher than at Calcutta, which is 126 miles further 

 south. Being at the head of the Gangetic delta, which 

 points from the Sunderbunds obliquely to the north-west, 

 it is much damper than any locality further west, as is 

 evidenced by two kinds of Calamus palm abounding, which 

 do not ascend the Ganges beyond Monghyr. Advancing 

 eastwards, the dry north-west wind of the Gangetic valley, 

 which blows here in occasional gusts, is hardly felt ; and 

 easterly winds, rising after the sun (or, in other words, 

 following the heating of the open dry country), blow down 

 the great valley of the Burrampooter, or south-easterly ones 

 come up from the Bay of Bengal. The western head of 

 the Gangetic delta is thus placed in what are called " the 

 variables" in naval phraseology; but only so far as its 



