2203. } 
ment, and fabfequent retiring. of the 
river, upon whofe banks, for the conveni- 
ence of water- -carriage, and boat-building, 
it has been always. found convenient to 
keep it. 
The Ganges differs from the fmaller 
rivers in this par ticular, that its windings 
are never fo intricate ; for let the encroach- 
ment, which is the principal caufe of the 
inflection of its courfe; be carried on dur- 
ing any number of years, it will be ulti- 
mately ftopped-by the ifland which grows 
tip oppofite to the fide encroached on, 
and which fooner or later will form a junc- 
tion with the main land. The channel 
being, at fength, completely choaked up, 
will in the hot feafon be left dry, when 
the whole ftream is diverted into the 
oppofite channel, and forms a fteep ridge. 
In the farvey in 1796, the great river 
near Sooty was found to have encuoaehed 
to within a niile of that place, although 
it was about go years ago reckoned four 
cofs. The narrow ifthmus between it and 
the Coflimbazar river was gradually be- 
coming lefs, and there was an appearance 
of a newchannel of communication, by the 
river breaking through the neck of land ; 
the encroachment continuing at the race? 
of an -hundréd yards every year. It is 
pofible, however, that the ericroachment: 
may -be topped by the diverfon of the 
principal ftream into another channel. An 
ifland of confiderable extent has grown up 
eppofite to the fide encroached on, and 
may in time form a junction with 
the main Jand above it. Should this take 
place, the rivers which now runs in a fouthe 
welterly diveGtion from Turtipour tos 
wards Sooty, will refume a direétion more 
analogous to the general line of its courfe 
through Bengal, and the land which has 
been carried away, by encroaching on its 
wettern bank, will be gradually reftored. 
The alteration which appeared in the great 
river near the inlet of the Baugrutty, at. 
Mohungunge, was no lefs confpicuovs. 
It was gaining ground again towards 
Gour, the walls of which city were for- 
merly wafhed by the Ganges. _ 
The alteration of the river at Colgong: 
may he reckoned among the moft extraor-- 
Ginary which have ever been obferved in 
_ the Ganges. In 1779, it was a broad open 
fiream, and free from fhallows, and three 
focks near Colgong were furrounded by 
- dry land. In 1783 the rocks were com- 
pletely infulated, and the current rushing 
between them with great rapidity; and in 
4797, while the river was expaoding it- 
felf, an ifland was. growing up in the 
middle of its bed ; it was then eight miles 
MonrTary Mac, No. 107% 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
$45° 
in length and two in breadth, and filling’ 
nearly the whole {pace which had been oc- 
cupied by the principal ftream in the year 
1779. The quantity of fand and foil 
which the river muft have depofited to ef- 
feét this, will appear prodigious, if it be 
confidered, that the depth of water in the 
navigable part of the Ganges is frequently 
upwards of feventy fect, and the new 
ifland had rifen to more than twenty feet 
above the level of the ftream. an 
Thus the Ganges, which for many’ 
years had flowed in a full ttream by Col- 
gong, may be faid now to have deferted! 
that place. The new ifland, which has 
been the principal caufe of this diverfion 
of the ftream, is hitherto but partially in- 
habited and cultivated, the greateft part 
of it being over-ran with hole and tama- 
rifk, The main ftream of the Ganges, 
which now paffes near Sooty, runs in a 
fouth-ealterly dire€tion ; anda great many 
villages which formerly exilted, are ho 
longer to be found in the pofitions afcribed_ 
to them in the old maps: fome have been 
entirely deftroyed; and others re-eftablithed 
under the fame or different names. The 
quantity of land which has here been 
dettroyed by the river, in the courfe of a: 
few years, dmoun's to forty fquare miles 
or 25.600 acres, which is, However, coun- 
terbalanced by fhe allavion whicn has 
taken place on the oppofite fhore, and by 
the new ifland of Sundeepa. which alone 
contains upwards of ten fquare miles. 
The main ftream of the Ganges; whicli. 
by Major Rennell’s map appears’ to have 
pafled within a mile and a half of Na- 
bobgunge, is now removed to a confider- 
able diftance from that place, and the 
channel from thence almoft dewn to Go- 
dagary is now confidered ag the continua- 
tion and outlet of Mahanudde river. The 
inflegtion in the courfe of the Ganges proz 
duced by the encroachment towards Sooty 
has increafed the diftance by water from 
Turtipour to Godagary in the dry feafon 
to twenty-fix miles, whereas by the maps 
it appears to have been formerly little 
more than 18. 
From Bogwangola the river turas eaft- 
ward; and the ftream ftrikes with pecu- 
liar force upon a fteep and crumbling 
bank, which indicates that the encroach- 
ment is fill carried on rapidly below that 
place. This bank it would have been very 
dangerous to have approached, as the 
fragments, which were continually detach- 
ing from it, muft have been fufficient to 
fink the largeft boat. In dropping down 
with the ftream, undulations m:ght be felt 
very fenibly, which the huge portions of 
roy the 
