II.
THE GANGES.
STEAMING up the Hooghly—perhaps the most intricate of all navigations—the ship is handed over to a pilot—not such as one is used to in other places. The pilots of the Hooghly are “swell” officers, highly salaried, clad in gorgeous naval uniforms. They come on board with bag and baggage, a retinue of black servants, and while on board—more like admiral than pilot—take full command of the ship.
The intricacies of this navigation may be readily gathered from the fact that the channels of the river change almost daily—the process of silting, due to the amount of soil carried by this enormous volume of water, is constant, but erratic. It is only by the constant use of the lead that the pilot can steer a safe course.
Accurate calculations have proved that the silt carried by the Hooghly amounts to 40,000 millions of cubic feet of solid earth per annum. Not only have the channels been altered from time to time, but within the memory of British settlers in India the entire beds of some of these mighty rivers have been completely displaced.
For instance, the city of Rajmahal—once the Mahomedan capital of Bengal—was not many years back selected to be the spot where the railways should tap the river system. The river has now turned away in a different direction, and left that town high and dry seven miles from its bank. This is one instance only amongst scores of similar vagaries of this great stream.
The sanctity of the Ganges is another item of great interest. From its source in the Himalayas to the mouths in the Bay of Bengal, its banks are holy ground. Each point of junction of the main stream with a tributary has special claims to sanctity; but the tongue of land where the Ganges and the Jumna unite is the true “Praág”—the place of pilgrimage—to which hundreds of thousands of devout Hindus repair to wash away their sins in the sanctifying waters.
To die and be buried on the river bank is the last wish of millions of natives. Even to exclaim “Gangá, Gangá!” on his death-bed, at a distance of hundreds of miles from that river may—in the opinion of Hindu devotees—atone for the sins of a whole life.