SURVEY OF THE GANGES. 489 



;of the Bhdgirat'hi is one hundred and twelve feet, and it is stiid to rise for- 

 ty feet in the rains. It has also a Jhuid thrown across it, a little above 

 the junction, and elevated about sixteen or eighteen feet. The banks 

 of these rivers are composed of a hard black rock ; those of the Alaca- 

 nandd almost perpendicular, ^o the height of eighty or one hundred feet; 

 those of the Bhdgirat'hi stony, shelving and expanded. The union of 

 these two streams forms the Ganges, the breadth of which is eighty 

 yards at this season, immediatety below the junction. 



Deopraya'g is one of the five principal Praydgs* mentioned in the 

 Sdstras, and is considered by all Hindus as a place peculiarly sacredo 

 The town is situated at the confluence of the Bhdgirat'hi and Alatanandd 

 rivers, and built on the scarp of the mountain, about one hundred feet 

 above the water. It forms two sides of a square, one face looking to- 

 wards the Alacanandd, and the largest towards the Bhdgirat'hi, The 

 foundation is a soil of hard rock, in which a fiight of steps is cut, leading 

 from the water's edge to a considerable distance up the mountain, which 

 xijses eight or nine hundred feet above the town. The houses are in gene- 

 ral two stories high, built of large stones, with a coarse Cancar-\ cement, 

 and covered in with a sloping roof of shingles. In the upper part of the 

 town stands a temple, sacred to Raghu-n'at'h or Ramachandra. This 

 edifice is constructed of large pieces of cut stone, piled up without mor- 

 tar. Its form is a quadrilateral pyramid, bulging in the center and 

 .decreasing towards the top, surmounted by a white cupola, over wliich, 

 supported on wooden pillars, is a square sloping roof, composed of 



jplates of copper. Above the whole, is a golden ball and spire. It is 



■i ' ' I. I ., ■ 



* This Avoicl is applic'.l to (he point Aihorc two rivers meet. 



t A coarse kind of liiuostouC; Ibund in louudiih iiodulcs, generally pretty near tl«c surface 

 cf the earth. 



A 6 



