Major Rowland Hill, late 70th Regt. Bengal Native Infantry, and commanding 4th Irregular Cavalry, when at Sultanpore, Benares, tried the following plan, in 1846. Placing several large boats with their prows facing up the river, he cut through the sand-bank, upon which the force of the current drove away the sand to the right and left of the boats.
There are so many points along the Ganges which demand the attention of the engineer, that nothing short of a careful examination of every hundred yards, on both banks, can solve the problem. Thus, having formed a shield in one locality, who can say where the next may be required? or, again, whether the river driving with full force to a new point, the evil may not break out at another? The natives never thought of such schemes in days of yore. Being a sacred river, the Ganges could do no wrong: if a man lost his boat, it was his destiny (nuseeb): the will of God in anger for his sins! Æsop's fables have been translated by a Brahmin; and an Englishman having read, to a Hindoo, the fable of the waggoner's complaint to Jupiter, the man shook his head and laughed.
It would seem possible, that by carefully examining this river during the dry season, from October to April, the channels might be found out. In the Bhauguretty, and smaller Indian rivers, dredging machines are used. The practicability of the plan could be ascertained, and that, too, at no great cost, by buoying off the river, and placing it in sections; this could be done by a native establishment, with some Europeans as supervisors.
The steam-boats often run aground, although they have native pilots, and are frequently not got off for several days. Sometimes, when the river is low, steamers can only reach Sirsah, twenty-six miles below Allahabad.
I must remind the reader, that the first rise of the river is caused by the melting of the snows in the Himalaya mountains during the warm weather, before the rainy season sets in, and that the rains afterwards keep it up to the high-water mark, until the month of October. The fall of rain in Assam, south-east of Calcutta, has been 240 inches in a year. At Bombay, up to the middle of August, 1849, it was eighty-six or eighty-seven inches; which is about the same quantity that falls in Calcutta during the whole of the rainy season.
I must not omit to mention, that some years since, an attempt was made to get a steamer up to Ghurrumkteesur Ghât, on the Ganges, about thirty miles from Meerut. But it proved a failure, for the Ganges from Allahabad to Cawnpore is shoaly, and above the latter place more so than below it, in addition to which hinderance, there was not a sufficient depth of water. By dint of great exertions, Captain Templeton did get the steamer up to Cawnpore; but he first took the precaution to unlade it. The steamers carry freight, as well as the cargo-boats; they are also more capable of enduring bad weather, yet during the rains of 1849, a gale blew so violently that the steamer turned aside, nearly to her opposite gunwale. In the month of August, the river is so rapid opposite Dinapore, that the steamers lose ground, or fall below their starting-point, even in crossing from one side of the river to the other. They go down the river at the rate of twelve or fourteen miles an hour.
There are many rivers that fall into the Ganges below Allahabad. The Ganges, I may remark, rises at Gangoutrie, in the Himalayas, that enormous chain of snow-capped mountains, which extends from Cabool along the north of Hindoostan to China. It flows for more than 1,200 miles through rich fields to the Bay of Bengal, which it enters by a delta of about sixteen miles in extent. In its course, it receives eleven tributary streams, none of which is smaller than the Thames. Below Allahabad, there are on the left bank, the Goomtee, Birnah, Koosee, Dewah, or Gograh, and the Great and Little Gundruk. On the right, at and below Allahabad, the rivers Jumna and Sone, all of which, except the latter, which rises near to the Nerbudda in the Deccan, flow from the Himalaya mountains. As there is no large stream which falls into the Ganges above Allahabad, it will easily be understood, that its greatest width and depth must be below that place.
The next attempt was to steam up the Jumna, but meeting with a shoal at Kulna, the steamer could proceed no further. The rocks which formerly existed in this river, were blasted by the late Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Taylor, of the Engineers.
The question naturally arises, why the same remedy could not be applied as at Gottenburg, in Sweden, where rapids have been passed by making a canal outside; and why, in India, canals are never resorted to for out-flanking an impediment in a river? This, however, is an enquiry to which no satisfactory reply has ever yet been given.