1395.] E. A. Shillingford —On the Kusl Ewer. 11 
pestilential and uninhabitable. Gaur was finally abandoned in favor of 
Rajmahal as the seat of Government in 1592, or about the time the Kusi 
is supposed to have flowed along this channel and the numerous 
marshes near Maldah would form a necessary concomitant to the Kusl 
in this position. 
Returning now to where the Kusi leaves the Mountains, we see that, 
Raised ground asa resu ^ ^s extensive mountain drainage, 
round debouchure of a vast quantity of detritus is thrown out into 
Kusi into plains. the pi a i ns below Catra and keeps constantly 
increasing and raising the detrital talus, or minature plateau, formed 
round its debouchure from the mountains, and along this plateau the 
Kusi waters run with great velocity and at a high level, as compared 
with the surrounding plains. The Railway Surveys of the Assam-Behar 
section of the E. B, S. R., and the Bengal North-Western Railway, which 
are connected by a ferry across the Kusi, about 5 miles below the Nepal 
frontier, show that from Acra (vulgo Achra) Ghat, on the east bank of the 
Kusi to Forbesganj Station, a distance of 14 miles by the line in a South- 
Easterly direction, there is a fall in the surface of the ground of 29 feet 
and from Khanwa Ghat, on the right bank of the Kusi, to Nirmali—across 
the Bir Bandh—a distance by rail of 32 miles in a slight South-Westerly 
direction there is a fall in the surface of the ground of 46 feet. A careful 
survey, with levels recorded, made by the P. W. D. in 1890-91, shows (1) 
that the fall along the left bank of the Kusi from Acra Ghat to the 
village of Pitlioria, a distance in a straight line of about 10 miles, is 
29-33 feet; (2) that the high banks of the Kajri, or Kali Kusi, or main 
Kusi of 1731, which flows about 10 miles to the east of Acra Ghat is 
some 10 feet below the level of the bottom or bed of the present Kusi ; 
and (3) that Debiganj Station, on the left bank of the Kusi of 1807-10 
is about 5 feet below the level of the bed of the present Kusi, lower 
ground intervening between these two rivers. 
Captain Jeffreys, in his report on the Gandak Canal, remarks “ In 
Bihar it is characteristic of all rivers north of the Ganges that they run 
on ridges of high ground.” The Kusi is so conspicuous in this respect, at 
Banks of Kusi form- the present time, that it admits of no affluents 
ing a water-shed i n ^he plains, in fact, its banks form, as it 
were a water-shed between the rivers of the Districts of Purneah 
and North Bliagalpur near whose line of division the Kusi at present 
flows during a good portion of its course in the plains. All the rivers 
in the South-Western half of 'Purneah, taking their rise from the 
eastern slopes, and those in North Bhagalpur, mostly from the western 
slopes of the main Kusi banks; and it is worthy of notice that all 
the mountain water the Ganges receives through the various tributaries 
