THE INDIAN PENINSULA 149

channels and estuaries of the two great rivers, and where
it borders the sea the labyrinth of creeks is lost amidst
the dense jungle and forests of the Sundarbans. When
the yearly inundations occur an immense area is covered
with water like a sea ; the ordinary method of conveyance
from one cluster of huts to another is by boat; nothing is to
be seen of the rice crops but the “ears of grain floating on
the surface.” Rice is the great agricultural staple, and
in this part of India forms the chief food of the people ;
but the products of lower Bengal are many and varied,
and it ranks as the most productive part of the whole
province. Sir John Strachey thus describes the scenery:
“ A constant succession of admirable pictures is afforded
by the reaches of the river busy with traffic; the boats
with their great sails; the cocoa-nuts and other palms,
huge figs, tamarinds, and mangoes, bamboos and
plantains ; the villages with tanks green with slime and
water-lilies; neat cottages covered with creeping
gourds and cucumbers and melons ; the delicate forms
of the men and women in scanty but graceful costume
—these, and a thousand picturesque details, and the
colouring of its hot and steamy atmosphere, makes
Bengal one of the most beautiful countries in India.
Nor is it so disagreeable for Englishmen to live in as
might be supposed. Although it has not the advantage
of the pleasantly cold winter of Northern India, the heat
of the summer is tempered by the greater moisture, and
by the nearness of the sea. Heat like that of June at
Agra or Lahore is unknown, and for three or four
months in the winter the climate is very agreeable.”
The Ganges with its tributaries covers an enormous
catchment basin, reckoned at 391,100 square miles, between
 the Himalayas and the Vindhyas. Starting at
13,800 feet above sea-level the river drops to 1024 feet
at Hardwar in the first 180 miles of its course. Here it
discharges about 7000 cubic feet per second at its lowest,
when it is almost entirely absorbed in irrigation. In
another 1000 miles it collects drainage amounting to
-,800,000 cubic feet discharge in flood time, so that its