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lief. The river Ganges begins to fwell before the 
commencement of the rains, reported by the natives to 
proceed from the melting of the fnow on the Northern 
mountains during the heats of May and June. But the 
fudden rife of the waters in the Ganges, a few days after 
the fetting in of the rains, is almoft incredible ; lince it 
has been known to rife tw'enty feet in forty-eight hours ; 
and its fudden fall is as extraordinary. In Bengal the 
rivers are of courfe affected by the rife and fall of tlie 
Ganges. Floods continue the whole time of the rains, 
more or lefs ; but the greatelf overflowings are generally 
at the beginning and the end or the breaking up of the 
rains, at which period it rains with the greateft violence. 
The waters at Allahabad and in all the upper countries 
run off into the rivers as foon as the rain has ceafed, the 
foil being for the moft part of fand, and the country in- 
terfe<5led with fmall rivulets ; but in Bengal, and parti- 
cularly fo low down as Calcutta, being of a clay foil and an 
extenflve flat, the whole country is overflowed, forming 
lakes of great extent, fome of them being flx miles over. 
The water, therefore, generally remains till the Sun has 
exhaled it, by which it becomes putrid, and renders thofe 
parts extremely unwholefome, occafioning thofe deadly 
putrid fevers, which carries off the patient in a few hours, 
known by the name of pucker fevers. 
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XX. A Second 
