Id Mr. ken Nell’s Account of the 
food confumed by ten millions of people are conveyed by water 
within the kingdom of Bengal and its dependencies. To thefe 
mind be added,, the tranfport of the commercial exports and im- 
ports, probably to the amount of two millions fterling per 
annum the interchange of manufactures and products through- 
out the whole country ; the fifherie.s ; and the article of tra- 
velling 
Thefe rivers, which a late ingenious gentleman aptly termed 
fillers and rivals (he might have faid twin lifters,, from the con- 
tiguity of their fprings), exaftly refemble each other in length 
of courfe; in bulk, until they approach the fea \ in the fmooth- 
nefs and colour of their waters ; in the appearance of their 
borders and iflands ; and, finally, in the height to which their 
floods rife with the periodical rains. Of the two,, the Burram- 
pooter is the largeft ;„ but the difference is not obvious to the 
eye. They are now well known to derive their fources from 
the vaft mountains of Thibet ft ; from whence they proceed in 
oppofite directions ; the Ganges feeking the plains of Hin- 
dooftan (or Indoftan)- by the weft ; and the Burrampooter by 
the eaft ; both purfuing the early part of their courfe through 
rugged vallies and defiles, and feldom vifiting the habitations off 
men. The Ganges, after wandering about 750 miles through 
thefe mountainous regions, iffues forth a deity to the fuperfti- 
* The embarkations made ufe of vary in bulk from 180 tons down to the fize 
©fa wherry. Thofe from 30 to 50 tons are reckoned the. moil eligible for. 
tranfporting merchandize. 
f Thefe are amongft the higheft of the mountains of the old hemifphere. T 
was not able to determine their height; but it may in fome meafure be gueffed, 
by the circumflanc-e of their rifmg confiderably above the horizon, when viewed: 
from the plains cf Bengal, at the diltanee of i£p tulles... 
7 
tious,. 
