Bengal in fuch a variety of directions, as to form the moft complete and eafy inland navigation' that can be conceived. So equally and admirably diffused are those natural canals, over a country that approaches nearly to a perfect plain, that, after excepting the lands contiguous to Burdwan, Birboom, &c. (which all together do not conftitute a fixth part of Bengal,) we may fairly pronounce that every other part of the country has, even in the dry feafon, fome navigable stream within 25 miles at fartheft, and more commonly within a third part of that dis tance. It is fuppofed that this inland navigation gives conflant employment to 30,000 boatmen. Nor will it be wondered at, when it is known that all the falt, and a large proportion of the food confumed by ten millions of people, are conveyed by water within the kingdom of Bengal and its dependencies. To these must be added, the tranfport of the commercial exports and imports, probably to the amount of two millions fterling per annum; the interchange of manufactures and products through the whole country; the fisheries, and the article of travelling. Thefe rivers, which a late ingenious gentleman aptly termed fifters and rivals, (he might have faid twin fifters, from the contiguity of their fprings,) exactly resemble each other in length of course; in bulk, until they approach the fea; in the fmoothnefs and colour of their waters; in the appearance of their borders and iflands; and, finally, in the height to which their floods rife with the periodical rains. Of the two, the Burrampooter is the largeft; but the difference is not obvious to the eye. They are well known to derive their fources from the vaft mountains of Thibet, from whence they proceed in oppofite directions; the Ganges feeking the plains of Hindooftan (or Indoftan) by the weft, and the Burrampooter by the eaft; both purfuing the early part of their courfe through rugged vallies and defiles, and feldom vifiting the habitations of men. The Ganges, after wandering about 750 miles through thefe moun tainous regions, iffues forth a deity to the fuperftitious, yet gladdened, inhabitant of Hindooftan. From Hurdwar, (or Hurdor,) in latitude 30 deg. where it gufhes through an opening in the mountains, it flows with a fmooth navigable ftream through delightful plains, during the remainder of its courfe to the fea, (which is about 1350 miles,) diffufing plenty immediately, by means of its living productions; and fecondarily, by enriching the adjacent lands, and affording an eafy means of transport for the productions of its borders. In a military view, it opens a communication between the different pofts, and ferves in the capacity of a military way through the country; renders unneceffary the forming of magazines, and infinitely furpaffes the celebrated inland navigation of North America, where the carrying places not only obftruct the progrefs of an army, but enable the adverfary to determine his place and mode of attack with certainty. In its courfe through the plains, it receives eleven rivers, fome of which are equal to the Rhine, and none fmaller than the Thames, befides as many others of leffer note. It is owing to this vaft influx of ftreams, that the Ganges exceeds the Nile fo greatly in point of magnitude, whilft the latter exceeds it in length of course by one-third. Indeed, the Ganges is inferior, - in this laft refpect, to many of the northern rivers of Afia; though I am inclined to think that it discharges as much or more water than any of them, because thofe rivers do not lie within the limits of the periodical rains. The bed of the Ganges, as may be fuppofed, is very unequal in point of width. From its first arrival in the plains of Hurdwar, to the conflux of the Jumnah, (the first river of note that joins it,) its bed is generally from a mile to a mile and a quarter wide; and, compared with the latter part of its courfe, tolerably ftraight. From hence, downward, its courfe becomes more winding, and its bed confequently wider, 'till, having alternately received the waters of the Gogra, Soane, and Gunduck, befides many fmaller ftreams, its bed has attained its full width; although, during the remaining 600 miles of its course, it receives many other principal ftreams. Within this space it is, in the narroweft part of its bed, half a mile wide, and in the wideft three miles; and that, in places where no islands intervene. The stream within this bed is always either encreasing or decreafing, according to the feafons. When at its lowett, which happens in April, the principal channel varies from 400 yards to a mile and a quarter; but is commonly about three quarters of a mile. The Ganges is fordable in fome places above the conflux of the Jumnah, but the navigation is never interrupted. Below that, the channel is of confiderable depth, for the additional ftreams bring a greater acceffion of depth than width. At 500 miles from the fea, the channel is thirty feet deep when the river is at loweft; and it contains at least this depth to the fea, where the fudden expanfion of the ftream deprives it of the force neceffary to fweep away the bars of fand and mud thrown acrofs it by the ftrong foutherly winds; fo that the principal branch of the Ganges cannot be entered by large veffels. About About 220 miles from the fea (but 300, reckoning the windings of the river,) commences the head of the Delta of the Ganges, which is confiderably more than twice the area of that of the Nile. The two westernmost branches, named the Coffimbuzar and Jellinghy rivers, unite and form what is afterwards named the Hoogly river, which is the port of Calcutta, and the only branch of the Ganges that is commonly navigated by fhips. The Coffimbuzar river is almost dry from October to May; and the Jellinghy river (although a ftream runs in it the whole year) is in fome years unnavigable during two or three of the dryeft months; fo that the only fubordinate branch of the Ganges, that is at all times navigable, is the Chundnah river, which feparates at Moddapour, and terminates in the Hooringotta. The part of the Delta bordering on the fea, is compofed of a labyrinth of rivers and creeks, all of which are falt, except those that communicate with the principal arm of the Ganges. This tract, known by the name of the Woods, or Sunderbunds, is in extent equal to the principality of Wales, and is fo completely enveloped in woods, and infefted with tygers, that if any attempts have ever been made to clear it, (as is reported,) they have hitherto mifcarried. Its numerous canals are fo difpofed, -as to form a complete inland navigation throughout and across the lower part of the Delta, without either the delay of going round the head of it, or the hazard of putting to fea. Here falt, in quantities equal to the whole confumption of Bengal and its dependencies, is made and tranfported with equal facility; and here alfo is found an inexhauftible ftore of timber for boatbuilding. The breadth of the lower part of this Delta is upwards of 180 miles; to which, if we add that of the two branches of the river that bound it, we fhall have about zoo miles for the distance to which the Ganges expands it branches at its junction with the fea. It has been obferved before, that the courfe of this river, from Hurdwar to the fea, is through an uniform plain, or, at leaft, what appears fuch to the eye; for the declivity is much too fmall to be perceptible. A fection of the ground, parallel to one of its branches, in length 60 miles, was taken by order of Mr. Haflings, and it was found to have about nine inches defcent in each mile, reckoning in a straight line, and allowance being made for the curvature of the earth. But the windings of the river were fo great, as to reduce the declivity on which the water ran to lefs than four inches per mile; and by a comparison of the velocity of the ftream at the place of experiment with that in other places, I have no reafon to fuppofe that its general defcent exceeds it. [M. de Condamine found the defcent of the river Amazons, in a ftraight course of about 1860 miles, to be about 1020 Englifh feet, or fix inches and three-quarters in a mile. If we allow for the windings, it comes out nearly the fame as the Ganges, (which winds about one and one-ninth of a mile in three, taking. its whole courfe through the plains,) namely, about four inches in a mile.] The medium rate of motion of the Ganges is lefs than three miles an hour in the dry months. In the wet feafon, and during the draining off of the waters from the inundated lands, the current runs from five to fix miles an hour; but there are inftances of its running feven, and even eight miles, in particular fituations, and under certain circumftances. I have an experiment of my own on record, in which my boat was carried fifty fix miles in eight hours; and that against so strong a wind, that the boat had evidently no progreffive motion through the water. When we confider that the velocity of the ftream is three miles in one season, and five or more in the other, on the fame defcent of four inches per mile; and, that the motion of the inundation is only half a mile per hour, on a much greater defcent; no further proof is required how fmall the proportion of velocity is, that the defcent communicates. It is, then, to the impetus originating at the fpring-head, or at the place where adventitious waters are poured in, and fucceffively communicated to every part of the stream, that we are principally to attribute the velocity, which is greater or leffer, according to the quantity of water poured in. la common, there is found on one fide of the river an almost perpendicular bank, more or lefs elevated above the stream, according to the feason, and with deep water near it; and on the oppofite fide a bank, fhelving away fo gradually, as to occafion fhallow water at fome diftance from the margin. This is more particularly the cafe in the moft winding parts of the river, becaufe the very operation of winding produces the steep and fhelving banks for the current is always ftrongest on the externál fide of the curve formed by the ferpentine course of the river; and its continual action on the banks either undermines them, or washes them down. In places where the current is remarkably rapid, or the foil uncommonly loofe, fuch tracts of land are fwept away in the courfe of one feafon, as would aftonifh those who have not been eye-witneffes to the magnitude and force of the mighty ftreams occafioned by the periodical rains of the tropical regions. This neceffarily produces a gradual change change in the course of the river; what it loft on one fide being gained on the other, by the mere operation of the ftream for the fallen pieces of the bank diffolve quickly into muddy fand, which is hurried away by the current along the borders of the channel to the point from whence the river turns off to form the next reach, where, the ftreams growing weak, it finds a refting-place, and helps to form a fhelving-bank, which commences at the point, and extends downwards, along the fide of the fucceeding reach. To account for the flackness of the current at the point, it is neceffary to obferve, that the ftrongest part of it, instead of turning fhort round the point, preferves for fome time the direc-: tion given it by the laft fteep bank, and is accordingly thrown obliquely across the bed of the river, to the bay on the oppofite fide, and purfues its courfe along it, 'till the intervention of another point again obliges it to change fides.. In thofe few parts of the river that are ftraight, the banks undergo the leaft alteration, as the current runs parallel to them; but the leaft inflection of courfe has the effect of throwing the current against the bank; and if this happens in a part where the foil is compofed of loofe fand, it produces in time a ferpentine winding. Y The PROGRESS of VICE: A MORAL TALE. OUNG Davis was the fon of a reputable tradesman in the city of London. He received an education calculated to accomplish him both for commercial and polite life: his genius was brilliant, and his difpofition tender. With these advantages he became the indulged favourite of his parents. His vices were liberal and fplendid: they wore a pleafing form, and therefore efcaped cenfure. In the morning of life, it was not confidered how much they would cloud the evening. Happily for his parents, they died, unthinking of the dangers which awaited on their darling child. They left him in the poffeffion of a genteel fortune, which they hoped he would improve by bufinefs; but his genius and education, while they made him acquainted with the useful arts, had given him a fuperior relish for those which are pleafing and elegant. He had never yet wanted money, and was infenfible of its value: his fortune dazzled his eyes, and bewildered his judgement; he thought it fufficient to purchase for him a continuance of enjoyments. Trade was be neath |