MMraM to Bengal.'] ORIENTAL COMMERCE. 251 



great facility ; and here also is found an inexhaustible store of timber for 

 boat-building. The breadth of the lower part of the Delta is upwards of 

 180 miles, to which, if we add that of the two branches of the river that 

 bound it, we shall have about 200 for the distance which the Ganges ex^ 

 pands its branches at its junction with the sea. There are two distinct 

 passages through the S underbuilds, one named the S. or Sunderbund 

 Passage; the other, the Baligot passage. The first is the farthest about, 

 and leads through the deepest and widest rivers ; it opens into the Calcutta 

 river, through Channel Creek, about 65 miles below the town. The Baligot 

 Passage opens into a lake on the E. side of Calcutta, from whence, some 

 years since, a small canal was cut, to join the lake with the river. 



The bore, (which is known to be a sudden and abrupt influx of the 

 tide into a river or narrow strait), prevails in the principal branches of the 

 Ganges, and in the Megna ; but the Hughley River is more subject to them 

 than the others. In the Hughley, or Calcutta River, the bore commences 

 at Hughley Point (the place where the river first contracts itself), and is 

 perceptible above Hughley Town ; and so quick is its motion, that it hardly 

 employs four hours in travelling from one to the other, although the distance 

 is nearly 70 miles. At Calcutta it sometimes occasions an instantaneous rise 

 of five feet ; and both here and in every part of its track, the boats on its 

 approach immediately quit the shore, and make for safety to the middle 

 of the river. 



The intricate and dangerous navigation of the entrance to the Hughley 

 requires great skill and experience. Full directions have been published by 

 Capt. Hoksburgh (India Directory, <$*c.) and Capt. Maxfield, (Directions 

 for sailing from Fahe Point Palmiras to the Sand Heads, <§v.). The 

 pilot vessels cruise, during the N. E. monsoon, about the vicinity of the E. 

 reef and Sagor Sand, in latitude 21° 3 N. ; and in the interval, between the 

 monsoons, for about a month, in the S. or W. channel. In the early part 

 of the S. W. monsoon, they are more frequently met between the parallel 

 of Point Palmiras reef, and latitude 20° 51 N. In the latter part they 

 cruise off Point Palmiras, but never very far S. of it; they are brigs of 200 

 tons. On shewing a jack at the fore, they answer with a red at the main : 

 carefully observe their movements and signals (Marriott's) as they are 

 sometimes in perilous situations ; attend carefully to the lead, and keep a 

 good look-out 



Burrampooter and Megna are names belonging to the same river in 

 different parts of its course. The Megna falls into the Burrampooter, and 

 though a much smaller river, communicates its name to the other during the 

 rest of its course to the sea. The Burrampooter, for a distance of 400 mile* 



