752 



of the current in a slope so little perceptible ; 

 but I shall remind the reader on this occasion, 

 that, according* to measurements made by order 

 of Mr. Hastings, the Ganges was found in a 

 course of sixty miles (comprising the windings) 

 to have also only four inches fall to a mile ; and 

 that the mean swiftness of this river is in the 

 seasons of drought three miles an hour, and in 

 those of rains six or eight miles. The strength 

 of the current therefore, in the Ganges as in the 

 Oroonoko, depends less on the slope of the bed, 

 than on the accumulation of the higher waters, 

 caused by the abundance of the rains, and the 

 number of tributary streams *. European co- 

 lonists have already been settled for two hundred 

 and fifty years on the banks of the Oroonoko ; 

 and during this long period of time, according 

 to a tradition which has been propagated from 

 generation to generation, the periodical oscilla- 

 tions of the river (the time of the beginning of 

 the rising, and that when it attains it's maximum) 

 have never been retarded more than twelve or 

 fifteen days. 



When vessels that draw a good deal of water sail 

 up toward Angostura in the months of January 

 and February, by favour of the Seabreeze and the 

 tide, they run the risk of taking the ground. 

 The navigable channel often changes it's breadth 



* Barrow, in the Voyage to the Zaire, Tntr. r p. xvii. 



