254 DACCA. Chap. XXVIII. 



again was 4° or 5° below that of Calcutta, with a 

 clamper atmosphere. The banks are of stratified sand 

 and mud, hardly raised above the mean level of the country, 

 and consequently unlike those bordering most annually 

 flooded rivers ; for here the material is so unstable, 

 that the current yearly changes its course. A wiry grass 

 sometimes feebly binds the loose soil, on which there are 

 neither houses nor cultivation. 



Ascending the Jummul (now the main channel of 

 the Burrampooter) for a few miles, we turned off 

 into a narrower channel, sixty miles long, which passes 

 by Dacca, where we arrived on the 28th, and where 

 we were again detained for boats, the demand for which 

 is rapidly increasing with the extended cultivation of the 

 Sunderbunds and Delta. We stayed with Mr. Atherton, 

 and botanised in the neighbourhood of the town, which 

 was once very extensive, and is still large, though 

 not flourishing. The population is mostly Mahometan ; 

 the site, though beautiful and varied, is unhealthy for 

 Europeans. Ruins of great Moorish brick buildings 

 still remain, and a Greek style of ornamenting the houses 

 prevails to a remarkable degree. 



The manufacture of rings for the arms and ancles, from 

 conch-shells imported from the Malayan Archipelago, is 

 still almost confined to Dacca : the shells are sawn across 

 for this purpose by semicircular saws, the hands and toes 

 being both actively employed in the operation. The in- 

 troduction of circular saws has been attempted by some 

 European gentlemen, but steadily resisted by the natives, 

 despite their obvious advantages. The Dacca muslin 

 manufacture, which once employed thousands of hands, is 

 quite at an end, so that it was with great difficulty that the 

 specimens of these fabrics sent to the Great Exhibition 



