Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-07-31
The 6anges.

1
miles it begins to assume the magnif.
cent proportions that have rendered il
so famous, flowing with mean course
southeast to the sea, but sometimes due
east and again due south. 1t is said by
| the geographers to be to the mouth Of
the Hooghly 1,5l5 miles in length; to
the mouth of the Megna it is more. On
Mercator's chart l can not make it SC
much in nautical miles. On its way to
the sea, the old writer's say. it receives
eleven rivers, some of which are equal
to the Rhine (say the Ohio), and none
less than the Thames. After receiving
several smaller streams it is joined 6oj
miles from its source by another almost
as sacred. the Jumna. There is the
celebrated town Allahabad. the ''City
of God" or the abode of Cod 56S
| miles from this, at the Town of Rajma-
bal, something over pa miles from
Saugor, it sends off the large branch
called the Baujiratee, and 80 miles fur.
Their down the Jellinoho. About rs
miles above SaugOr these streams unite
and form the Hooghly, which is con-
sidered by the ancients to be the true
Ganges. This is about 81 miles above
Calcutta, 100 miles from the sea. max
ing the Hooghly branch about l64 mile
long. The modern stream, the Gange>
or Podda, a much wider one than the
Hoogh!y, runs away to the southeast,
unites with the Negna and flows into
the Bay of Bengal, about 100 miles east
Of Saugor, or beyond the Souderbunda.
Its average width in the dry season is
called one mile; in the wet, two. 1t
yearly mandates its banks, which fer
tilizes the soil, and dressing is unneces-
sary. On the Jumna are the celebrated
cities Delhi and Agra, on the Gauges
Furruckabad, Cawnpore. Benares, Pat
ma and Moorshedabad. with many
more Lucknow is on another trio
utary, the Goomtree. The amount
of mud, earth. or matter discharged
by the Gauges into the sea every day,
according to Major Rennell, and given
in Colmstock's Geology. is $4,000. O0C
tons, or sixty times the size of the great
Pyramids of Egypt. Miss Feudge in
her history has it: 1T has been said
that, were two thousand ships. each
bearing fifteen hundred tons of soil, to
sail down every day of the year, they
would not carry rs much solid matter
as is borne t., the ocean in a single day
by the Ganges.' This is putting it
t'ship-shape and Bristol fashion, so
sailors can understand it What De.
comes of it? OFF the mouth Of the river
there is a remarkable region. 1t is east
of the Mutlah and about twenty miles
from the shore, running south south
west, twenty miles wide, monster
submerged canal, terminating or lost
in the deep scat 1t is called the Swatch
of no Ground, for though all around
the soundings arc light and regular, the
lead is suddenly lost in the depths be-
low; $50, 200, 800 fathoms are given in
some places, and in one spot no bottom
is found. In this, Rucius says much OF
the substance brought down by the
river is lost. The rest is undoubtedly
whirled around the bay by the tides
and washed up in other places. The
mighty stream is an epitome of life,
everything in itself. 1t is step by step,
pebble by pebble. eating away at the
root of the world, and carrying its ma
teral Off to the end of the world; there
it will be returned again, perhaps for
another world. So says science. In
time, only give the Gauges time, and it
will, do the work. Do you wonder,
reader, that the Indians consider this a
sacred stream? 1t enters into their
mythology, religion, wisdom, Justice in
every conceivable shape. From good
authority learn that it takes its name
from the Hindoo word Ganga, river.
Other writer's say that it was, or is,
taken from the Goddess Gunga, who
was produced from the moisture OF
Vishnu's foot, caught by Brahma and
preserved in his aims dish. Gunga,
coming down from heaven, divided her.
self one hundred streams, the mouths
OF the Ganges. The following is from
the Ramayana, called by Williams a Gu
rious episode in the story of the Ganges:
''Ganga, the personified Gauges, was
the eldest daughter of Himavat. Lord
of Mountains, Sagava. King of Ajod-
hya, of the Solar race, had 60, 600 sons,
who we're directed by their father to
look for horse which had been stolen
at horse sacrifice. They searched
the earth in vain. They dug up the
ground toward the lower regions. Meet,
ing sage they accused him of the theft,
which enraced him so that he reduced
them all to ashes. Sagava's grandson
some time afterward found their re-
mains, and commenced performing tn
funeral services of his relatives, but was
told it was necessary for Ganga to water
the ashes with her sacred stream.
Neither Sagava nor his grandson could
devise any means for effecting the de-
scent of the heavenly river. 1t was re-
served for his grandson. Bhagiratha, by
his austerities, to bring down the sacred
stream from heaven. In her descent
she fell first with great fury on the. head
of silva, who undertook to break her
fall" From this, presume, comes the
old legend that the river took its rise
from the head of the God silva. will
give another bit of mythology to show
with this how infatuated the old writer's
were with their subject ''Bagharatta,
having taken the divine Gapga as his
spouse in the midst of SHOWS, raised her
in his arms, and, mounting his chariot,
traced with his two large wheels the
banks of the wide bed of the goddess.
But wher they arrived at the seashore
Ganga recoiled with alright before the
impure and monstrous ocean. She fed
abruptly through a thousand channels,
and since that epoch she comes and
goes by turns, now venturing to de-
scend, and row fleeing again toward
the mountains twice day. CThis is
symbolic language for describing the
bore and tides.). Penant says: 1.-The
Indians feigned that Cupid was first
seen floating down the Gauges on the
Nympaa Nelumbo,'' and Moore has
caught the passage and woven. it into
some of the most beautiful poetry of the
..Lalla Rookh,' which renders it thus:
Cupid was floating down the river in a lotus
leaf.