JOURNAL 
OF THE 
ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL. 
—OcJoe— 
Part I. —HISTORY, LITERATURE, &e. 
No. I.—1893. 
On changes in the course of the Kusl River , and the probable dangers arising 
from them. 1 —By F. A. Shillingford. 
With a Map. 
[Read, February, 1895.] 
For several years past the Kusi, or Kosi, river has been attracting 
much attention owing to the sudden shift of 
Introduction. its main channel on the borders of Nepal 
whereby a considerable volume of its flood 
waters has been thrown eastwards, over tracts of country in the District of 
Purneah and Dinajpur, not previously subjected to its floods, in recent 
years, and it seems not improbable that some unusual change in the course 
of this erratic river is likely to occur in the immediate future. The 
writer having lived nearly all his life in Purneah, visitmg the banks of 
the Kusi, from the Nepal mountains to its junction with the Granges, 
constantly, for work, or in search of sport, has had exceptional oppor¬ 
tunities of watching the lesser as well as the more general changes of 
that river occurring within the last 25 years. During the rainy season 
of 1893, when severe floods were occurring up in the north of the District, 
1 [With reference to this paper, readers are referred to the discussion recorded 
in the Proceedings of the Society for Februai-y 1895, in which the propriety of 
certain of the author’s conclusions as regards the physical aspect of the case are 
seriously impugned. Ed.] 
J. I. 1 
