There can be little doubt, that the city of Gour stood on a spot which, in very ancient times, was washed by the sea; and we may, without being accused of credulity in the extreme, admit the great probability of the Ganges having then debouched into the _sinus_, or bay, at that same spot.
Nor should we doubt, that those sands, which are, at this day, so dangerous to navigation, from Balasore to Chittagong, will, at some remote period, be encreased and raised, so as to become, in the first instance, islands; and, ultimately, parts of the continent; the present channels serving for the courses of future rivers, which, in so loose a soil, may, like the Ganges in our times, be subject to changes of locality, whenever the floods may prove so impetuous as to open new beds, and cause the streams to be diverted into them.
The Sunderbunds, whatever may be their date or origin, present, at this day, a most inhospitable aspect, and give, exteriorly, a feature to the country which by no means corresponds with the interior: they are, in truth, a hideous belt of the most unpromising description, such as could not fail to cause any stranger who might be wrecked on that coast, and who should not proceed beyond the reach of the tide, to pronounce it ‘_a country fit for the residence of neither man nor beast_.’
When Major Rennell remarked, ‘that they furnish an inexhaustible supply of wood for boat building;’ he might have added, ‘of timber for ship building.’ Many very large vessels have been launched from this quarter, but, no pains having been taken to season the timber, it was not to be expected they should prove so durable as they might have been rendered by due precautions in that particular. Nor is the wood itself of the best quality for naval architecture; for, though it is very strong, and to be bent with facility to any necessary form, it, being extremely subject to be worm-eaten, proves a great draw-back on its being brought into more general use, unless for such vessels as are intended to be coppered: for such, the _jarrool_ may answer, as may also the _soondry_; both which abound in every part of the Sunderbunds.
The whole coast, from Balasore to Chittagong, has at times been occupied by a class of natives called _Molungies_, who manufacture salt from the sea-water. The produce of the several _chokies_, or manufactories, is immensely valuable, as has already been shewn, and suffices for the consumption of the whole population of all the Company’s dominions, besides what is exported into those of the Nabob Vizier, &c. About thirty-five years ago, salt used to be sold at a rupee, or a rupee and a half, per factory maund of 72lb.; which might average about one half-penny per lb.; but, since the Company monopolized the manufacture, and imposed a heavy duty, the price of salt has gradually risen to about four rupees per maund.