part of the delta. The water is clay-coloured and turbid, always
cooler than the air, which again was 4 degrees or 5 degrees below
that of Calcutta, with a damper atmosphere. The banks are of
stratified sand and mud, hardly raised above the mean level of the
country, and consequently unlike those bordering most annually
flooded rivers; for here the material is so unstable, that the
current yearly changes its course. A wiry grass sometimes feebly
binds the loose soil, on which there are neither houses nor
cultivation.

Ascending the Jummul (now the main channel of the Burrampooter) for a
few miles, 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, the demand for which is rapidly
increasing with the extended cultivation of the Sunderbunds and
Delta. We stayed with Mr. Atherton, and 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, is unhealthy for
Europeans. Ruins 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