Saugur is a densely-wooded island many miles in extent, rising only a few feet out of the water, and seamed and traversed by numerous bayous and creeks. Here come the wood-cutters who supply Calcutta with fuel, and occasionally—much against their will—furnish a good meal for the tigers for which Saugur is famous. The jungle is dense, and the tigers find in it a secure cover; they lurk in the vicinity of the paths, and spring on their victims without the least warning. Formerly they were numerous, but their ranks have been thinned by enterprising and intrepid hunters, and by the tidal wave that swept over Saugur a few years ago, and laid the whole island under water for several hours. All the low land at the mouth of the Hoogly was inundated, and the wave reached to Calcutta, where it caused enormous damage to the shipping. Thousands of lives were lost, and the terrible visitation fills a melancholy chapter in the history of the City of Palaces. On the island of Saugur nearly all the persons who were there at the time, engaged in wood-cutting or for other purposes, were drowned; only those escaped who were near their boats or were able to get into the tops of trees.
Two natives who were among the saved said that they climbed into a tree out of reach of the water, and were followed by a tiger. The animal did not molest them, and for several hours they were within a few feet of him, and were not even saluted with a growl. The beast was so terrified at the sight of the waters, and his own danger, that he forgot all his natural antipathy to man, but, on the contrary, seemed to court their presence. Since the inundation it is observed that there are but few tigers on Saugur Island, and the inference is that many of them were killed by drowning.
The steamer followed the tortuous channel among the sand-banks, and finally came to the entrance of the Hoogly, one of the mouths of the Ganges. The Ganges, like the other great rivers of the globe, has brought down vast quantities of earth and deposited it at its mouth, and the amount is so great as to divide the river into several channels. Doctor Bronson explained to the boys this peculiarity of great rivers, and told them that the earth which thus accumulates is called a delta.
"I understand," said Fred; "I read about that at school. Every great river has its delta, and some of them are very large. The delta of the Mississippi is more than 300 miles long, and is extending every year. In every ten gallons of water brought down by the river there is one gallon of solid matter, which is deposited in the Gulf of Mexico and must fill it up in time."
"Yes," echoed Frank; "and I've read about it, too. If you look on the map of any country where there is a large river, you will see that, it is pushed way out into the sea, and is generally divided into several mouths. This is the case with the Mississippi, the Nile, the Ganges, the Indus, the Mekong, and lots of others. The Amazon has a broad delta, as its mouth is 180 miles wide, and contains an immense island that was formed by the earth brought down from the interior ages and ages ago. What is that?"
He pointed directly ahead of the steamer to a spot on the bank where a flag appeared to be waving from a mast.
DIAMOND HARBOR.