248

SCENES IN INDIA.

Having got into a small boat, we made for the spot
where the mast was visible, and with the assistance of
our dandies succeeded in saving a portion of our things
from the wreck, though many were irrecoverable.
In the course of the day the budgerow was despatched
to our aid, when we put into her those things which
we had recovered, and again dropped quietly down
the river. The day was beautiful, though the loss
of our baggage rendered us less alive to it than we
no doubt should have been but for the unlooked-for
misfortune of the preceding evening.

Boats are exposed to great danger in coming down
the Ganges when the current is strong and the wind
high. The wind assisting the impetus of the current
frequently drives them with such force against the
high banks, already undermined by the water, as to
dislodge the superincumbent earth, which immediately
falls in immense masses, and unless the boats are
instantly driven past by the rapidity of the stream,
they are overwhelmed and sunk. The current, how-
ever, is generally so rapid at the seasons of the year
in which these accidents are to be apprehended, that
no sooner do the boats strike than they are borne
away beyond the reach of danger. Nevertheless,
their progress is sometimes arrested for the moment,
when the bank falls upon them, and they are inevitably
swamped. While the river is falling, where the stream
is impetuous, boats are occasionally thrown with vio-
lence against the banks of sand, which greatly inter-
rupt the course of the Ganges, except when it is
swollen by the rains and the melting of the moun-
tain snow. Should such an accident occur, a passage