1870.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 49 



the successive conditions of all. To the east where now the great 

 body of the waters of these rivers is discharged, we find the force 

 of the fresh water sufficient to overcome the strength of the tide, 

 and the influx of salt water from the sea. And down to the very 

 mouths of the rivers here, fresh water (often for hours in the day 

 flowing over a basis of salt water beneath) can readily be procured. 

 The consequence is that towns and villages line the banks of every 

 stream, and population and cultivation follow the course of this, 

 the prime element of their existence. To the east as we have said 

 the filling in of the Delta has not yet reached the same level as 

 to the west, and the fresh waters here retain sufficient power, 

 therefore to be carried down to the sea. In earlier times, pre- 

 cisely similar conditions must have existed further to the west ; 

 the larger portion of the river waters found their exit through the 

 channels there, and were thus in sufficient force to be carried down 

 to the very sea, and the natural consequences of this was, that man 

 fixed his abode, where he could procure fresh water, towns and 

 cities arose, and taking advantage of the great facilities for trade 

 offered by their position, increased in importance and number, 

 until the necessary changes in the course of the streams which 

 supplied them deprived them of the possibility of existence. That 

 this is the natural interpretation of the facts, appears to me abund- 

 antly evidenced by the circumstance that within this abandoned tract 

 and in its vicinity, at the present day, when the swarming popula- 

 tion is seeking utility for settlement in every direction, not a single 

 spot finds its settler, save where fresh water is to be had ; and 

 the traveller may go for days or weeks through the countless 

 anastomising creeks and channels of the tidal Snndarban, without 

 finding a single abode, whereas the moment be reaches any spot 

 where fresh water is obtainable, he finds cultivation spreading and 

 the population increasing. 



I alluded to the existence down to the very sea board of towns and 

 villages along the corner of the Megna &c, where fresh water 

 is still procurable. But I cannot shut my eyes to the consideration 

 that in the course of time (and very probably, as I believe, in a very 

 short time unless prevented by artificial means), these very localities 

 must themselves be again deserted and a Sundarban tract will then 

 be found in the eastern face of the delta, as it now is in the western. 



