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HISTORY OF

throughout the whole country; the fisheries, and the article of travel-ling. The vessels made use of vary in bulk from one hundredand eighty tons down to the size of a wherry. Those from thirtyto fifty tons are reckoned the most eligible for transporting mer-chandise.

“ The rivers are in a tranquil state from the time of the change of the-monsoon in October to the middle of March, when the north-westersbegin in the eastern part of Bengal; and these winds are the mostformidable enemies that are met with in this inland navigation j,they are sudden and violent squalls of wind and rain, and, althoughof no long duration, are often attended with fatal effects, if notcarefully guarded against : whole fleets of trading-boats have been funkby them.

“ During the long interval between the end of the rainy season andthe beginning of the north-westers, the navigator is secure withrespect to weather, and has only to observe a common degree of atten-tion in piloting the boat clear of shallows and stumps of trees; therate of motion must principally determine that of the boat, for themotion acquired by the oars of a large budgerow * hardly exceedseight miles a day at ordinary times. From the beginning of Novemberto the latter end of May, the usual rate of going with the stream isforty miles in twelve hours, and during the rest of the year from fiftyto seventy miles. The country, as I observed before, is nearly aplane ; to prove which, a section of the ground parallel to one ofits branches, in length sixty miles, was taken, and found to have onlynine inches descent in a mile; but the windings of the river were so

* A budgerow is a travelling boat, which is used in these inland navigations, con-structed somewhat like a pleasure barge: some of them have cabins, fourteen feet wideand proportionably long, and which are fitted up genteelly, according to the companythey carry and price of carriage : these boats draw from four to five feet water.

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