1895.] 
F. A. Shillingford —On the Kusi River. 
15 
gradients in the Kusi sub-delta, and the inference to be drawn from the 
straightening of the Tista, it would appear probable that the Kusi, after 
reaching its westernmost limit, will go back to near the easternmost of 
its abandoned channels, and then begin the work of moving westwards 
all over again. In fact since these notes were taken, the Kusi, during 
the rains of 1893, made a great demonstration of going eastwards and 
threw such a considerable volume of water from below the village of 
Babbia into the Burhi river, that a considerable tract of country on both 
its sides was flooded and covered up in places with 6 to 8 feet of sand, 
and the large villages of Harinagra, and Diwanganj, in Nepal, on the 
right bank of the Burhi stream, were silted up and had to be deserted. 
The Tista river is known to have flowed through the Karatoya, and 
to the East of this latter river there are other 
beds known as the mara or dead Tista. In 
Major Rennel’s Bengal Atlas, published in 
1781, the Tista is shown running far to the west of the Karatoya, i. e., in 
the Atrai river, and flowing into the Padma or Granges. This seems to 
have been the westernmost limit of the Tista, though in remoter times it 
Return of the Tista 
to its easternmost 
abandoned channel. 
may have flowed through the Dhipa and Purnabaha in Dinajpur, for 
in 1787, quoting from the Rangpur Collectorate records, Dr. Hunter in his 
account of that District says, “ The Tista, at all times an erratic river, 
had for long rolled its main stream through the western part of Rangpur 
and through Dinajpur till it mingled its w'aters with the Atrai and 
other streams, and finally made its way into the Padma or Ganges. 
At the same time it threw off a small branch in the northern part of 
Rangpur which found its way by a circuitous course past Ulipur to the 
main stream of the Brahmaputra, a little farther north than the place 
where the waters of the Ghaghat found an exit into the same river. 
Suddenly the main branch of the Tista swelled by incessant rains, swept 
down from the hills such vast masses of sand as to form a bar in its 
course, and bursting its banks the Tista forced its way into the Ghaghat. 
The channel of this latter stream was utterly inadequate to carry off 
this vast accession to its waters ; the waters of the Tista accordingly 
spread itself over the whole District causing immense destruction to life 
and property, until it succeeded in cutting for itself a new and capacious 
channel through which the river now flows. This great inundation 
occurred on the 27th August 1787, and on the 2nd September, the 
Collector reported to the Board of Revenue that, “ Multitudes of men, 
women, children and cattle have perished in the floods, and in many 
places whole villages have been so completely swept away as not to 
leave the smallest trace whereby to determine that the ground had been 
occupied.” These calamities culminated in a famine. Collections of 
