Under the circumstances of a flood, which lasts for many months, fluctuating from the middle or end of July to the beginning of October, (though the water does not drain off before the middle of December in low situations,) the inhabitants might be supposed to suffer under all the miseries of a general ruin and subsequent scarcity. The reverse is, however, the fact; for, provided the rains do not fall in such torrents as to wash away their habitations, and to occasion so rapid a rise in the fluid plain as to overwhelm the growing rice, the more ample the _bursauty_, (_i.e._ the rains,) the more plentiful the crop, and generally the less sickly does the season prove. The latter point will appear self-established, when we consider that amplitude of inundation serves, not only to divide the septic matter contained in the water, but likewise to accelerate its action, and cause its proceeding with added impetus to discharge itself into the bay. At this season, rivers are only known by the currents, and consequent swells, which appear amidst this temporary ocean! The navigation, for several months, assumes a new appearance. Vessels of great burthen, perhaps of two thousand maunds, (each 80lb.,) equal to nearly one hundred tons, are seen traversing the country in all directions, principally with the wind, which is then within a few points on either side of south. Noted cities, exalted mosques, and populous _gunjes_, or grain-markets, on the river’s bank, are not objects of attention. The boatman having set his enormous square sail, proceeds by guess, or, perhaps, guided by experience, through the fields of rice, which every where raise their tasseled heads, seeming to invite the reaper to collect the precious grain. As to depth of water, there is generally from ten to thirty feet, in proportion as the country may be more or less elevated.
It is curious to sail among these insulated towns, which, at this season, appear almost level with the surrounding element, and hemmed in by their numerous _dingies_, or boats, which, exclusive of the necessity for preparing against an over-abundant inundation, are requisite for the purposes of cutting the _paddy_: rice being so called while in the husk.