This great river has its rise in the northern face of the Himalaya Mountains, and, after a course of about two thousand miles, falls into the Bay of Bengal through numerous channels. The remote sources of the Ganges were long imperfectly known, and afforded a fertile subject of conjecture and controversy to the geographers of Europe. Prior to the commencement of the nineteenth century, this river had been traced by Hindoo pilgrims to Gangoutri, the point at which it issues from the Himalaya Mountains; but all accounts agreed that its origin was still more remote. On the side of Thibet it had been surveyed by lamas or priests, sent for that purpose by the Emperor Cambi, whose route terminated at Rentaisse, a range of snowy mountains on the west and south of Thibet. The most general notion was, that it flowed within the Himalaya chain of snowy mountains for many hundred miles, from the imaginary lake of Mapama, to Gangoutri. In 1808, Lieutenant Webb was sent by the Bengal government to explore the sources of the Ganges. About seventeen miles beyond Gangoutri his further progress was stopped by the difficulties of the country, but the Moonabee who accompanied the party went forward; and as he proceeded upwards, after leaving Gangoutri, he occasionally perceived the river among the snow, which a little higher up so completely filled its bed that no trace of it could be discovered. Five hundred yards further on it again showed itself; but in front was a steep mountain, rising up like a huge wall, from an angle of which the Ganges appeared to issue; whilst all beyond was an impenetrable mass of snow. This is the furthest point to which the Ganges has been traced, and may be considered as its source; though others think the Dauli to be the main stream, owing to the length of its course from Gangoutri. Two miles higher up the river is the place called the Cow's Mouth. It is a large stone in the middle of the river, the water passing it on each side, and leaving only a small piece above the surface, to which the fancy of superstition has given the form of a cow's head, an animal held sacred by the Hindoos. From Gangoutri the Ganges flows, in the upper part of its course among the mountains, from south-east to north-west; and it is only from Sookie, where it fairly pierces through the Himalaya range, that it assumes a course south-west to Hurdwar. Here, in the latitude of 30° N. it gushes through an opening in the mountains, and flows with a smooth navigable stream to its confluence with the Jumna at Allahabad, the first large river that joins it in Hindustan proper. Its bed is of very unequal breadth. From its first arrival in the plains at Hurdwar to the confluence of the Jumna, it is generally from a mile to a mile and a quarter wide, and, compared with the latter part of its course, tolerably straight. From hence downward it becomes more winding; till, having successively received the waters of the Goggrah, the Soane, and Gunduck, besides numerous smaller streams, its bed has attained its full width, which varies from half a mile to three miles. The stream is always increasing or decreasing, according to the season; and in April, when it is lowest, the principal channel varies from four hundred yards to about a mile and a quarter. At the height of the inundation the breadth of the river is of course greater; and Bishop Heber mentions, that at Boglipoor, about six hundred miles from the sea, including the turnings of the river, the breadth was nine measured miles across. Though the Ganges be fordable in some places above the confluence of the Jumna, the navigation is never interrupted. Below, the depth of the channel is increased, the additional streams bringing a greater accession of depth than breadth. At five hundred miles from the sea, the channel is thirty feet deep when the river is lowest, and it continues at least this depth to the sea, when the sudden expansion of the stream deprives it of the force necessary to sweep away the bars of sand and mud thrown across it by strong southerly winds; so that the principal branch of the Ganges cannot be entered by large vessels. At about two hundred and twenty miles from the sea, or three hundred reckoning the windings of the river, commences the head of the Delta of the Ganges. The two easternmost branches, named Cossimbazar and Jellinghy rivers, unite and form what is afterwards denominated the Hooghly, which is the port of Calcutta, and the only branch of the Ganges that is commonly navigated by ships. Below the channel named the Songti Mohana, where the Ganges sends off these two branches which go to Calcutta, the main stream loses not only its name, but the greater part of its sanctity in the eyes of the natives. The Cossimbazar river is almost dry from October to May, nor is the Jellinghy river navigable during two or three of the driest months; so that the only subordinate branch of the Ganges which is at all times navigable is the Chandnah river, which separates at Moddapoore, and terminates in the Hooringotta river. That part of the Delta called the Sunderbunds consists of a labyrinth of rivers and creeks, which is two hundred miles broad at the junction of the Ganges with the sea. This tract is covered with woods which are infested with tigers, and its numerous canals form a complete inland navigation across the lower part of the Delta. The Ganges, like all tropical rivers, overflows periodically during the season of the rains in Bengal, on which it depends for its supplies, and not, as may be supposed, on the melting of the mountain snows. Its rise is thirty-two feet, fifteen and a half of which it rises by the latter end of June, and it is not until this time that the rainy season commences in the plains. By the end of April, when the rains from the mountains have reached Bengal, the rivers begin to rise at the rate GAN-GAO

Gangoutri of an inch per day for the first fortnight, which augments to two and three inches before any quantity of rain has fallen; and when the rain becomes general, the river increases, at a medium, to five inches per day. By the latter end of July all the lower parts of Bengal are inundated. The inundation is at a stand in the middle of August; and it gradually and slowly decreases in August and September, and until April, when it again begins to rise. The quantity of water discharged is calculated in the dry season to amount to 80,000 cubic feet per second, and during the inundation to 405,000 cubic feet. The descent of the river is about nine inches per mile, and estimating the windings of the stream, four inches per mile. In the dry season the current is three miles an hour; it increases during the wet season to five or six miles, and in particular situations to seven or eight miles. On the banks of the Ganges, where the soil is loose, and the current rapid, "such tracts of land," says Major Rennell, "are swept away in one season as would astonish those who have not been eye-witnesses to the magnitude and force of the mighty streams occasioned by the periodical rains of the tropical regions." Great changes are in this manner produced in the course of the river, what is lost on one side being gained on the other by the mere operation of the stream. In its course through the plains the Ganges receives eleven rivers, some of which are larger than the Rhine, besides many others of less importance. The Gograh, the Soane, and the Coosy, are the largest of the tributary streams in Bengal and Bihar. The Brahmapootra has its rise near the source of the Ganges, and from hence the two rivers diverge widely asunder; but afterwards they intermix their waters before they fall into the sea, the Ganges having then performed a course, including its windings, of about 1500 miles.