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CHAPTER XXIII
Steamboating On the Ganges—Life on the River—The Greatest Business
Firm in the World—Sceneries—Temples—Serampoor—Boat Races—An
Excursion to the Himala}ras—Darjieling and Himala}’a Railroad—
Tea Plantations—Darjieling—Llamas—View from the Mountains.
Having received all its tributaries on its course from the
Himalaya Mountains through Central Hindustan, the
Ganges has now swelled to such vast proportions that it
cannot keep its volume of water within one regular channel
through the level, soft soil of the Hindoo Peninsula, but
flows into the ocean by several independent channels. One
of these which is called the Hoogley, and has been
mentioned already, is at Calcutta, about eighty miles from the
sea, as broad as the united Missouri and Mississippi at St.
Louis, and still the eastern half of it, close to the city, is so
crowded with ships, barges and boats for a distance of six
miles that it requires great care and skill at the helm to
navigate safely.
On Jan. 2, 1882, the Calcutta rowing club had arranged
a race between Barrackpoor and Serampoor, to which four
hundred guests, including myself had been invited. Two
large and ten smaller river steamers, all adorned with
flowers and waving flags, lay around the pier between the
Hoogley and the Nimtoolaghat waiting for us. Other steamers
packed with natives, and Indian river boats with their
half-naked rowers, crowded around the little flotilla, partly
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