346 
the falling bank produced in the water, at 
the diftance of upwards of an hundred 
yards; and the noife with which they were 
accompanied, might be compared to the 
difiant rumbling of artillery or thunder. 
The encroachment of the river in this 
part of its courfe has deftroyed a confi- 
derable portion of arable land, and has 
been the caufe of the removal or deftruc- 
tion of feveral villages. That of Songar- 
pour, formerly two miles and a half from 
the neareft reach of the Ganges, is now 
clofe to. its bank ; and here the river ap- 
pears to occupy 2 part of the tract which 
Major Rennell calls the ‘old courte ot the 
Ganges.”” 
Hence the ftream runs eaft-north-eait as 
far as Allypour, at which place more than 
twenty villages have been deftroyed by the 
river; the inhabitants of which bad moftly 
fettled on new iflands oppofite to Ally- 
pour. On thefe not a fingle tree is to be 
feen ; and from the colour of the thatched 
huts, it appears that fome of the villages 
have been recently eftablifhed. 
The main branch of the Ganges -runs. 
north-eaft by eaft, to about four miles be- 
Jow Allypour; whence turning eaft, and 
eaft by fouth, it paffes within two miles 
ef Bauleak. Pafling on, the ftream, 
which, in the year 1795, ran: directly 
down to the inlet of the Howleah river, 
has fince that period been directed again 
fiill further to the eaftward ; and what 
feems wonderful is, that, in lefs than two 
years, a confiderable portion of the main 
channel, which contained nearly the whole 
fiream of the Ganges, was completely 
filled with fand, which in fome parts rofe 
feveral feet above the Jevel of the ftream, 
and the people had already begun to cul- 
tivate furfce and rice in the very fpots 
where there had formerly been the deepeft 
water. 
This remarkable change took place 
diving the extraordinary mundation of 
1796, when the floods had rifen to an un- 
ufual height in almoft every part of the 
country; butitmult have been chiefly while 
the waters were draining off, that fuch an 
immenfe body of fand could have been de- 
pofited. In one part of the channel oppo- 
fite to Dewangunge, which but two years’ 
befere had been a ford, it was now from 
twenty to fixcy feet deep, which will ferve 
to convey an idea, not only of the rapidity 
with which the waters of the inundation 
can excavate the loofe foil of Bengal, but 
alfo, of the inconftant and fluctuating 
ftate of the rivers in general. : 
‘The Ganges, in its courfe through Ben« 
Proceedings of Learned Societies 
_[Nov: 1, 
gal, may be faid to have under its domi 
nion a confiderable portion of the flat 
country ; for not only the channel which, 
at any given time, contains the principal 
body of its waters, but alfo as much of 
the land, on each fide, as is comprehended 
within its collateral branches, and is liable 
toinundation or to be deftroyed by the en- 
croachments of the ftream, may be confi-_ 
dered as belonging tethe river. We mutt, 
of courfe, include any tract, or old chan- 
nel, through which it has formerly run, 
and into which there is any probability of 
its returning again, as the Baugrutty at 
Gour ; the tra& called ‘*the old courfe of 
the Ganges”’ in the Coffimbazar ifland; or 
the channel which has been, within thefe 
few years, completely ‘filled up near 
Jellinghy. Confidered in this way, the 
Ganges will be found to occupy a confide- 
rable expanfe, of which a more correct 
idea may be formed, by taking the dit- 
tance between any two places oppofite to 
one another, which had formerly been, or . 
one of which may fill remaie; on the verge 
of, or in the vicinity of the ftream ; for. 
inftance : 
miles 
Oodanulla to the ruins of Gour.......- mag > 
Burruckabad: to.-ditto. gis). ae £4) + 
Comrah to Nabobgunge -.-...----.- toi 
Comerpour to Bogwangola -.-,4---.-- 9t 
Extreme breadth of river bed between L 
Jellinghy and Maizeconda a 
If correfponding fections of the bed of the 
river and neighbouring ground were repre- 
fented, it would probably appear that all the 
land is difpofed in regular ftrata; whence 
we might with certainty conclude, that 
the whole has been at fome former-periods 
depofited by the ftream. The ftrata, in 
general, confift of clay, fand, and vegetable 
earth; the latter of which is always up- 
permoft, except when in fome extraordinary 
high flood, a new layer of fand is again 
depofited over it, by which means the 
ground becomes barren, or is at leaft ma- 
terially injured. The bed of the Ganges 
can {carcely be faid to be permanent in any 
part of its courfe through Bengal. There 
are, however, a few places, where, from 
local caufes, the main channel and deepeft 
water will probably always be found. 
H. T. Colebrooke, Elfq. has given to 
the fame Society an account of the ‘* Ori- 
gin and peculiar tenets of certain Muham- 
medan fects. The following are among ~ 
the more remarkable. 
The Bohrahs, numerous in the Indian 
peninfula, but found alfo in moft of the 
great cities of Hindooftan,are eee 
£ ofr 
