1831.] 
Analyses of Boohs. 
187 
below, or where the whole breadth of the river has nearly equal velocity, less than 
5 feet are found in the dry season 1 . 
The surface of the river is at that time a series of steps, or alternate deep level 
water, and rapid shallows ; which, though they considerably impede the naviga- 
tion of large craft, serve undoubtedly to keep the river open to light boats much 
longer than if there were none of these artificial dams ; since the increase of slope 
remarked above, would otherwise tend to drain the whole dry in a short time. 
The higher the river is ascended the more marked becomes this system of pools 
andsand-bars : In the Sikrigali shoals, Captain Wall, of the Hooghly, found 5 feet 
water, hut near Allahabad the passage shallows to 2 feet : the steamer’s progress 
was arrested below Mirzapoor by a shoal of 3| feet, stretching diagonally across 
the river. 
( beyond Allahabad the state of the river is still more unfavourable to navigation : 
c Of the difficulty of passing up the Ganges in the first six miles above the Fort, the 
causes,” Captain Smith fears, “ are such, as will not warrant my holding out strong 
expectations of their removal : the principal obstruction is felt^tthe junction of the 
two rivers, where the large body of sand and earthy matter brobght down by the cur- 
rent, particularly of the Ganges, is deposited near the eddies and slack water, is again 
suspended by the stream, as the rivers, rising and falling as they are constantly 
doing in different levels, alternately disturb each other, and again deposited in 
new situations ; thus forming a shallow and continually shifting bar.” In the dry 
season, the river meanders from bank to bank among extensive sands, cutting it- 
self a channel, several feet deep, in what was the bottom in its swollen state; so that 
in such places the surface of the stream is frequently more than seven feet below 
the level of the deepest part of the bed in the rains ! 
Little can be done to improve the navigation of such places ; the great perpen- 
dicular rise precludes the possibility of cutting a new course, which would require a 
depth of 6'0 feet; and the absence of superficial waters in the lower Dooab prevents 
the adoption of the more economical form of a lock canal. Captain Smith does 
not consider that steam tow boats, of small draught, could be advantageously em- 
ployed ; and indeed, it should be remembered, that when once the winter channel is 
formed, the sands alongside answer the purpose of tracking paths, and that it is 
only the want of water which impedes the progress of boats. 
This officer has been employed in removing obstacles of a more serious nature in 
the Jumna : “ The practicability of removing the ledges of rocks in the bed of this 
river, by blasting, was pointed out and acted upon by Captain Irvine, Eng. who was 
obliged to proceed to England, in 1826, from injury received atBhurtpoor; the work 
has since been conducted by Captain Smith, and “ already the rocky obstructions 
have been blasted and cleared for more than half the distance to Agra, including 
those of Kurreem Khan, where the whole channel was so interspersed with rocks, 
that the extreme difficulty of getting through caused sometimes a detention of 
weeks. This pass was opened last year ; and at the same time a dam was con- 
structed to deepen , and give permanency to the channel, by which the passage of 
boats is reported to have been facilitated in a degree quite extraordinary .” It is 
worthy of attention, that although the natural rocky dam was removed, the neces- 
sity was felt of substituting another more manageable one of sand, to prevent the 
bed from being entirely left dry ! 
1 In an abrupt angle of the Juboona, near Hoseinabad, the depth excavated by the 
stream, amounts to 72 feet, although iu the reaches above and below, there are not 
more than 4 feet water. — P. 
