Ganges and Burrampooter Rivers . 97 
taken away. This is, however, the moft rapid change that I 
have noticed; a mile in ten or twelve years being the ufuai 
rate of incroachment, in places where the current ftrikes with 
the greateft force, namely, where two adjoining reaches ap- 
proach neareft to a right angle. In fuch fituations it not unfre- 
quently excavates gulfs * of confiderable length within the 
bank. Thefe gulfs are in the dire&ion of the ftrongeft parts of 
the ftream ; and are, in fa£t, the young /hoots (if I may foexprefs 
myfelf) which in time ftrike out and become branches of the 
* river ; for we generally find them at thofe turnings that have 
the fmalleft angles t« 
Two caufes, widely different from each other, occafion the 
meandering courfes of rivers ; the one, the irregularity of the 
ground through which they run, which obliges them to 
wander in queft of a declivity ; the other, the loofenefs of 
the foil, which yields to the fri&ion of the border of the 
ftream. The meanders in the firft cafe, are, of courfe, as 
digreflive and irregular as the furface they are proje&ed 
on : but, in the latter, they are fo far reducible to rule, 
that rivers of unequal bulk will, under fimilar circumftances* 
take a circuit to wind in, whofe extent is in proportion 
to their refpeftive breadths ; for I have obferved, that 
* The Count de BUFFON.advifes the digging of fuch gulfs in the banks of 
ordinary rivers, with a view to divert the current, when bridges or other build- 
ings are endangeredby it. 
f The courfes of thefe branches at the efflux, generally, if not always, become 
retrograde to the courfe of the river : for, a fand bank accumulating at the upper 
pcint of feparation, gives an oblique dire&ion upwards, to the ftream, which would 
otherwife run out at right angles. This fand bank being always on the increafe, 
occafions acorrofion of the oppofite bank ; and by this means all, or moft of the 
outlets have a progreffive motion downwards ; as I have before remarked of the 
Jellinghy River, in the foregoing page* 
Vou lxxi, o 
wheu 
