Stre ights of
K upeli.
Cow’s M o u th .
ftream. The gorge into the mountain is called the ftreights of
Kupeli. The bloody tyrant, Tamerlane, in his invafion of India
in 1399, could boaft o f penetrating farther than any invader
ever did before. Here he found great numbers of Hindoos,
probably retired to this facred place; they difperfed at his approach,
fled into the woods, were purfued and maffacred
without mercy, according to the cruel fpirit of' Mabometifm,
ever exerted againft thofe who differed from them in religious
matters.
T he hiftorian o f Tamerlane mentions a place, fifteen miles
above thefe ftreights, diftinguiihed by the fculpture o f a cow,
the animal fo highly venerated by the Hindoos, and to which
they refort even to this day in great numbers. The barbarian
found great crowds o f thefe innocent people when he was
there : he attacked them, but met with a feeble refiftance, fo
that multitudes fell viitims to his cruelty. '
T he upper Gangoutra was once fuppofed to have been the
famous cavern called the Cow's Mouth, but the opinion is riow
laid afide: this was like the rock near which Tamerlane committed
one of his maflacres, and was likewife their great refort. A
cavern of this name, and ftill greatly frequented, certainly exiftsl
It was vifited by Father Tiefentaller, yet by the medium o f Mr.
Rennel, through the channel o f Mr. Daniell, we learn no more
than that it may lie in a north or north-by-weft direction from
Hurdwar.
Into the Ganges flow, multitudes o f great rivers from each fide,
which give a matchlefs inland navigation. It receives in its
courfe through the plains eleven rivers, fome o f which are equal
in fize to the Rhine, and none leffer than the Thames’: it maintains
thirty
thirty thoufand boatmen, by their carriage o f fait and food
for ten millions o f people in Bengal and its dependencies,
which occafions a vaft expenditure; add to this the exports and
imports, the common interchange o f divers articles within its
limits, its fiiheries, and its travellers, which do all together oc-
cafion annually an expenditure o f two millions o f money.
I s h a l l not detain my reader any longer than to fay that
there are certain trails of land which require lefs moifture than
others from the nature of their production ; thefe are defended
from the inundations by vaft dikes, they in various places extend
a thoufand miles, i f united, and are kept up at an enormous
expence. One branch o f the Ganges is thus confined for
the extent of feventy miles, and o f the breadth o f the Thames
near Batterfea; fo that when the river is full, paffengers look
down on each fide as from a lofty eminence into the fubjacent
country.
Just before the rains fet in, which is about the middle o f
July, the waters o f the Ganges begin to increafe, occafioned by
the fnow on the tops o f the hills from whence the river iffues
(above thirteen hundred miles from the fea) being melted b y
the fun ; as foon as the rains commence it hourly fwells,
pouring with the moft impetuous velocity, and the river has
the appearance o f a fea, and in fome parts, where there happen
to be rocks or very high hills on each fide pretty near the river,
the water being there pent up, it rifes to a prodigious height,
and the current is fo ftrong and rapid, that it is hardly pofiible
for any boat to item it.
A f ter about two months, when the violence o f the rain begins
V a s t D ikes.
A nnualF loods.