May, 1850. ALTERED COURSE OF BURRAMPOOTER. 253 



superficial winds arc concerned, for its great atmospheric 

 current always blows from the Bay of Bengal, and flows 

 over all northern India, to the lofty regions of Central Asia. 



At Rampore I found the temperature of the ground, at 

 three feet depth, varied from 87° S to 89° 8, being con- 

 siderably lower than that of the air (94° 2), whilst that of a 

 fine ripening shaddock, into which I plunged a thermo- 

 meter bulb, varied little from 81°, whether the sun shone 

 on it or not. From this place we made very slow progress 

 south-eastwards, with a gentle current, but against constant 

 easterly winds, and often violent gales and thunder-storms, 

 which obliged us to bring up under shelter of banks 

 and islands of sand. Sometimes we sailed along the broad 

 river, whose opposite shores were rarely both visible at 

 once, and at others tracked the boat through narrow creeks 

 that unite the many Himalayan streams, and form a net- 

 work soon after leaving their mountain valleys. 



A few miles beyond Pubna we passed from a narrow 

 canal at once into the main stream of the Burrampooter at 

 Jaffergunj : our maps had led us to expect that it flowed 

 fully seventy miles to the eastward in this latitude ; and we 

 were surprised to hear that within the last twenty years the 

 main body of that river had shifted its course thus far to 

 the westward. This alteration was not effected by the 

 gradual working westwards of the main stream, but by 

 the old eastern channel so rapidly silting up as to be 

 now unnavigable ; while the Jummul, which receives the 

 Teesta, and which is laterally connected by branches with 

 the Burrampooter, became consequently wider and deeper, 

 and eventually the principal stream. 



Nothing can be more dreary and uninteresting than the 

 scenery of this part of the delta. The water is clay- 

 coloured and turbid, always cooler than the air, which 



