The swelling of the great rivers is a matter of great uncertainty; sometimes they rise very early, before the quantity of rain that falls in the lower provinces could lead to the expectation of their doing so: when this is the case, it is not uncommon to see the Cossimbazar river, commonly called the _Baugrutty_, nearly dry at night, and full twenty feet, or more, deep the next morning. In other seasons the waters are very tardy; a matter of serious moment to the husbandman, who is naturally anxious to plant his crop of rice in due time, so that it may be securely attached to the soil before the great inundation comes on. The growth of the rice stalk is certainly one of the most curious proofs of nature’s adaptation of that plant to the situation in which it is cultivated; namely, in the water: it will not thrive unless the stem be immersed for several inches; and, owing to the formation of its stalk, which draws out like the concentric tubes of a pocket telescope, it can put forth many feet in the course of a few hours, so as, apparently, to grow as fast as the water may rise, and to keep its pannicle from being overflowed. It is by no means rare for the rice stalks to shoot forth from five to six feet during the twenty-four hours: I have _seen_ it do much more!
In parts subject to the regular annual inundation, all the villages are built on rising grounds: many stand on artificial mounds, formed by excavations around their bases, so that they are surrounded nearly by moats, in which their _dingies_, or small boats, are immersed during the dry season, and affording admirable refreshment to their buffaloes during the summer heats. But it sometimes happens, that the waters rise to so great a height as to endanger even these elevated villages; some of which are then completely inundated. To avoid this, most of the houses are built upon piles, or stakes, thereby to raise their floors from four to six feet above the ground, and open enough to permit the waters to pass through with freedom. In the dry time of the year, the cattle are occasionally kept within the areas thus enclosed under the floors; but, while the inundation is at its height, so as to insulate a village completely, all the live stock are kept in boats moored around it, where they are fed by a species of the _doob_, or _doop-grass_, dragged up from the bottom of the waters by means of split bamboos, made to serve as forks: but for so providential a supply, the cattle must be led scores of miles to some part of the country, whose elevation exempts it from inundation.