354 GANGETIC DELTA. Chap. XXXI. 



however, much less here than in the Fenny, higher up the 

 gulf. The turf is composed of Cynodon and a Mmbristylis ; 

 and the earth being impregnated with salt, supports 

 different kinds of Ckenopodwm. Two kinds of tamarisk, 

 and a thorny Cassia and Rvcccaria, are the only shrubs on 

 the eastern islands; on the central ones a few dwarf 

 mangroves appear, with the holly-leaved Dilivaria, dwarf 

 screw-pine (Pandanus), a shrub of Composites, and a 

 curious fern, a variety of Acrostichum aureum. Towards 

 the northern end of Hattiah, Talipot, cocoa-nut and date- 

 palms appear. 



On the 22nd we entered the Sunderbunds, rowing 

 amongst narrow channels, where the tide rises but a few 

 feet. The banks were covered with a luxuriant vegetation, 

 chiefly of small trees, above which rose stately palms. 

 On the 25th, we were overtaken by a steamer from Assam, 

 a novel sight to us, and a very strange one in these creeks, 

 which in some places seemed hardly broad enough for it to 

 pass through. We jumped on board in haste, leaving our 

 boat and luggage to follow us. She had left Dacca two 

 days before, and this being the dry season, the route to 

 Calcutta, which is but sixty miles in a straight line, 

 involved a detour of three hundred. 



From the masts of the steamer we obtained an excellent 

 coup -d' ceil of the Sunderbunds ; its swamps clothed with 

 verdure, and intersected by innumerable inosculating chan- 

 nels, with banks a foot or so high. The amount of tide, 

 which never exceeds ten feet, diminishes in proceeding 

 westwards into the heart of these swamps, and the epoch, 

 direction, and duration of the ebb and flow vary so much 

 in every canal, that at times, after stemming a powerful 

 current, we found ourselves, without materially changing 

 our coarse, suddenly swept along with a favouring stream. 



