alteration was not effected by the gradual working
westwards of the main stream, but by the old eastern-
channel so rapidly silting up as to be now unnavigable;
while the Jummul, which receives the Teesta, and
which is laterally connected by branches with the
Burrampooter, became consequently wider and deeper,
and eventually the principal stream.
Nothing can be more dreary and uninteresting than
the scenery of this part of the delta. The water
is clay-coloured and turbid, always cooler than the air,
which again was 4° or 5° below that of Calcutta, with a
damper atmosphere-
Ascending the Jummul, we turned off into a narrower
channel, sixty miles long, which passes by Dacca,
where we arrived on the 28th, and where we were
again detained for boats. We botanised in the neighbourhood
of the town, which was once very extensive,
and is still large, though not flourishing. The
population is mostly Mahometan; the site, though
beautiful and varied, being unhealthy for Europeans-
Bums of great Moorish brick buildings still remain,
and a Greek style of ornamenting the houses prevails
to a remarkable degree.
The manufacture of rings for the arms and ancles,
from conch-shells imported from the Malayan Archipelago,
is still almost confined to Dacca: the shells are
sawn across for this purpose by semicircular saws, the
hands and toes being both actively employed in the
operation. The introduction of circular saws has been
attempted by some European gentlemen, but steadily
resisted by the natives, despite their obvious advantages.
The Dacca muslin manufacture, which once
employed thousands of hands, is quite at an end,
so that it was with great difficulty that the specimens
of these fabrics sent to the Great Exhibition of 1851,
were procured. The kind of cotton employed (which
is very short in the staple), is now hardly grown,
and scarcely a loom exists which is fit for the finest
fabrics. The jewellers still excel in gold and silver
filagree.
Pine-apples, plantains, mangos, and oranges, abound
in the Dacca market, betokening a better climate for
tropical fruits than that of Western Bengal; and we
also saw the fruit of Euryale ferox* which is round,
soft, pulpy, and the size of a small orange; it contains
from eight to fifteen round black seeds as large as
peas, which are full of flour, and are eaten roasted in
India and China, in which latter country the plant is
said to have been in cultivation for upwards of
8000 years.
The native vegetation is very similar to that of the
Hoogly, except that the white rose is frequent here.
The fact of a plant of this genus being as common on
the plains of Bengal as a dog-rose is in England, and
associated with cocoa-nuts, palms, mangos, plantains,
and banyans, has never yet attracted the attention
of botanists, though the species was described by
Boxburgh. As a geographical fact it is of great
importance, for the rose is usually considered a
northern genus, and no kind but this inhabits a damp
* An Indian water-lily with a small red flower, covered everywhere
with prickles, and closely allied to Victoria regia.