1870.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 47 



known to occur, within its limits. And the most terrific stories of 

 the inroads of savage pirates, of the occurrence of tremendous 

 gales — and awful waves carrying with them the devastation of 

 everything, have been invited to account for the extinction of these 

 cities, and the abandonment of the lands then under cultivation. 

 The joint action of the Society and others has been invited to stir 

 up the Government of the country to undertake a systematic 

 examination of the whole area ; and wonderful prospects have been 

 held up of intending archaeological discoveries to reward the risk 

 of life and health, which such an expedition would involve. I 

 cannot agree with these views — and for this reason, that I am 

 compelled to view the changes which have occurred in this Sundar- 

 ban tract as the necessary results of undeviating natural laws, in- 

 volving nothing more than the most gradual and ordinary changes, 

 such as are still in progress. 



I suppose no one will hesitate to acknowledge that the whole of 

 the country, including the Sundarban proper, lying between the 

 Hughly on the west, and the Megna on the east, is only the delta 

 caused by the deposition of the debris carried down by the rivers 

 Ganges and Brahmaputra, and their tributaries. It is also equally 

 well known that in such flats, the streams are constantly altering 

 their courses, eating away on one bank and depositing on the other, 

 until the channel in which they formerly flowed became choked up, 

 and the water is compelled to seek another course. It is also 

 certain that in this peculiar delta, the general course of the main 

 waters of the Ganges has gradually tracked from the west towards 

 the east, until of late years the larger body of the waters of the 

 Ganges have united with those of the Brahmaputra and have toge- 

 ther proceeded to the sea as the Megna. Every stream whether large 

 or small, flowing through such a flat, tends to raise its own bed or 

 channel, by the deposition of the silt and sand it holds suspended 

 in its waters, — and by this gradual deposition the channel bed of 

 the stream is raised above the actual level of the adjoining flats. 

 It is impossible to suppose a river continuing to flow along the 

 top of a raised bank, if not compelled to do so by artificial means, 

 and the consequence of this filling in and raising of its bed, is that 

 at the first opportunity, the stream necessarily abandons its original 



