262 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
obtained possession ; amongst these he mentions a 
rhinoceros, a tiger, and a snake, seventy-five feet 
long — quinquaginta cubitorum. 
This wild tract extends a hundred and eighty miles 
along the bay of Bengal, and is filled with tigers and 
alligators of the largest kind, together with other crea- 
tures of similar power and ferocity. There are two 
passages through it, the northern Sunderbund passage, 
and the Balliaghaut passage. The first opens into the 
Hoogley sixty-five miles below Calcutta, the other into 
a shallow lake on the eastern side of the city. The 
navigation of these channels extends more than two 
hundred miles through an impenetrable jungle divided 
by creeks occasionally so narrow, that in some places 
branches of trees almost meet on either side, and 
in others you sail upon an expanded river beautifully 
skirted with wood. Alligators innumerable are seen 
sleeping along the shores, looking like huge trunks 
of trees. It is scarcely possible to imagine them to be 
alive until they are disturbed, when they scramble 
with surprising activity into the stream and sink. Great 
numbers of natives who frequent the banks of the 
creeks that divide the Sunderbunds, to cut wood 
and collect salt, are yearly devoured by these and 
other beasts of prey ; indeed, the tigers are so ra- 
venous, that they have been known to swim off to 
boats and attack the crews at a considerable distance 
from the shore. 
Notwithstanding these perils, many devotees erect 
their rude huts in this region of desolation. In spite 
of the charms which they pretend to possess, and their 
