io 6 Mr. rennell’s Account of the 
the inhabitants of a confiderable diftrr6t ? with their houfes and 
cattle, were totally fwept away ; and, to aggravate their dif~ 
trefs, it happened in a part of the country which fcarce pro- 
duces a fingle tree for a drowning man to efcape to. 
Embarkations of every kind traverfe the inundation : thofe 
bound upwards, availing themfelves of a diredt courfe and ftill 
water, at a feafon when every dream rufheslike a torrent. The 
wind too, which at this feafon blows regularly from the fouth- 
eaft *, favours their progrefs ; infomuch, that a voyage, which 
takes up nine or ten days by the courfe of the river when con- 
fined within its banks, is now effected in fix. Hufbandry and 
grazing are both fufpended ; and the peafant traverfes in his 
boat, thofe fields which in another feafon he was wont to 
plow ; happy that the elevated fite of the river banks place.: 
the herbage they contain , within his reach, otherwife his cattle 
muff perifh. 
The following is a table of the gradual increafe of the 
Ganges and its branches, according to obfervations made at 
Jellinghy and Dacca. 
At Jellinghy. At Dacca. 
In May it rofe 
Ft. 
6 
In; 
a 
Ft. In. 
2 4 
June - - 
9 
6 
4 6 
Jufjr 
12 
6 
5 6 
In the firft half of Auguft 
4 
o 
iii 
3 2 
o 
J 4 3 
* Although in the gulf or bay of Bengal the monfoon blows from the S.S.W. 
and S.W. yet in the eaftern and northern parts of Bengal it blows from the S.E, 
or E,S,E. 
i Thefe 
