Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/78

68 to Idda in the S. It was established by the Fulah or Fulatah on the dissolution of the lloussa kingdom of Katchena by the death in 1817 of Sheik Otlunan dan Foddie. The political unity of the various parts of the kingdom is with ditliculty maintained, and the process of l disintegration has begun. Among the separate districts or provinces are Libtako in the north, Yaga, Saberma, Gurma,. Dendima, a great part of Yoruba with the town of Ilori, Yauri, part of Nupe or Nyﬂ'e, and part of Borgu. The chief town is Cando, situated on the Sokoto, the ﬁrst con- siderable atlluent of the Niger from the east, not far from the town of b‘okoto, which is the capital of the powerful kingdom of that name. Babb-a, Egga, Bus-ah, Igbegbo, and Bida are among the more important towns. The whole (lando territory is estimated at 81,500 square miles, and its population at 5,800,000. See Barth’s Travels in Central -lfrica, and Baikie, “Journey from Bida to Kano,” in Journ. 134/. (1009. Soc, 1867.  GANGANELLI. See  GANGES, a river of northern India, formed by the drainage of the southern ranges of the Himalayas. This mighty stream, which in its lower course supplies the great river system of Bengal, rises in the Garhwal state, and falls into the Bay of Bengal after a course of 1500 miles. It issues, under the name of the Bhagirathi, from an ice cave at the foot of an Himalayan snow bed near Gangotri, 10,300 feet above the level of the sea. During its earlier passage through the southern spurs of the Himalayas, it receives the J ahnavi from the north-west, and subsequently the Alak'umda, after which the united stream takes the name of the Ganges. Deo Prayag, their point of junction, is a celebrated place of pilgrimage, as is also Gangotri, the source of the parent stream. At Sukhi it pierces through the Himalayas, and turns south-west to Hardwar, also a place of great sanctity. It proceeds by a tortuous Course through the districts of Dehra Dun, Saharanpur, Muzaff arnager, Bulandshahr, and Farrukhabad, in which last dis- trict it receives the Ilamganga. Thus far the Ganges has been little more than a series of broad shoals, long deep pools, and rapids, except, of course, during the melting of the snows and throughout the rainy season. At Allahabad, how- ever, it receives the J unma, a mighty sister stream, which takes its rise also in the Himalayas to the west of the sources of the Ganges. The combined river winds eastwards by south-east through the North-“'estern Provinces, receiving the Gumti and the Gogra. The point of junction of each of these streams has more or less pretension to sanctity. But the tongue of land at Allahabad, where the J umna and the Ganges join, is the true l’rayag, the place of pilgrimage, to which hundreds of thousands of devout Hindus repair to wash away their sins in the s1cred river. Shortly after passing the holy city of Benares, the Ganges enters Behar, and after receiving an imp )rtant tributary, the Son, from the south, passes Patna, and obtains another accession to its volume from the Ganrlak, which rises in Nepal. Further to the east, it receives the Kust’, and then, skirting the Raj mahal hills, turns sharply to the southward, passing near the site of the ruined city of Gaur. By this time it has approached to within 240 miles, as the crow ﬂies, from the sea. About 20 miles further on, it begins to branch out on the level country, and this spot marks the commence- ment of the delta, 220 miles in a straight line, or 300 by the windings of the river, from the Bay of Bengal. The main channel takes the name of the Padma or Padda, and proceeds in a south-easterly direction, past Pabna to (loalanda, above which it is joined by the Jamuna or main stream of the Brahmaputra. The vast conﬂuence of waters rushes towards the sea, receiving further additions from the hill country on the east, and forming a broad estuary known under the name of the Meghna, which enters the Bay of Bengal near Noakhali. This estuary, however. is only the largest and most easterly of a great number of mouths or channels. The most westerly is the 11(1in or llooghly which receives the waters of a number of distribu- tary channels that start from the parent Ganges in the neigh- bourhood of Murshidabad. Between the Ilugli on the west and the Meghna on the east lies the delta. The upper angle of it consists of rich and fertile districts, such as Murshidabad, Nadiya, J essor, and the 24 l’arganas. But towards its southern base, resting on the sea, the country sinks into a series of great swamps, intercepted by a net- work of innumerable channels. This wild waste is known as the Sundarbans, from the sundari tree, which grows in abundance in the sea-board tracts. The most important channel of the Ganges for commerce is the Ht’tgh’, on which stands Calcutta, about 90 miles front the mouth. Beyond this city, the navigation is conducted by native craft-,——thc modern facilities for trafﬁc by rail, and the increasing shoals in the river, having put an end to the previous steamer conummicatiou, which plied until about 1860 as high up as Allahabad. Below Calcutta important boat routes through the delta connect the Hugh with the eastern branches of the river, both for native craft and steamers. The langes is essentially a river of great cities: Calcutta, Monghyr, Patna, llenares. and Allahabad, all lie on its course below its junction with the Jumna; and the ancient capitals, Agra and Delhi, are on the Jumna, higher up. The catchment basin of the (langes is bounded on the N. by a length of about 700 miles of the Ilimalayan range, on the S. by the Yiudhya mountains, and on the E. by the ranges which separate Bengal from Burmah. The vast river basin thus enclosed embraces 432,480 square miles. The ﬂood discharge of the Ganges at Rajmahal, after it has received all its important tribu- taries, was formerly estimated at 1,350,000 cubic feet per second. According to the latest calculations, the length of main stream of Ganges is 1540 miles, or with its longest aﬂluent, 1080; breadth at true entrance, 20 miles; breadth of channel in dry season, 13,- to 2% miles; depth in dry season, 30 feet; ﬂood discharge, 1,800,000 cubic feet per second; ordinary discharge, 207,000 cubic feet; longest duration of ﬂood, about 40 days. The average descent of the river from Allahabad to Bcnares is 6 inches per mile, from Benares to Calcutta, between 4 and 5 inches; from Calcutta to the sea, 1 to 2 inches. Great changes take place from time to time in the river bed, which alter the face of the country. Extensive islands are thrown up, and attach themselves to the mainland, while the river deserts its old bed and seeks a new channel, it may be many miles off. Such changes are so rapid and on so vast a scale, and the corroding power of the current on the bank so irresis- tible, that in Lower Bengal it is considered perilous to build any structure of a large or permanent character on the margin. Many decayed or ruined cities attest the changes in the river bed in ancient times; and within our own times the main channel which formerly passed ltajmahal has turned away from it, and left the town high and dry, 7 miles from the bank.  GANGI, a town of Italy, in the province of Palermo, and circondario of Cefalu, about 22 miles inland from the town of Cefalu. It occupies the slope of a hill on the southern ﬂanks of the Nebrode or Monte Marone, and the ridge of the hill is crowned by a striking fortress with three towers, only one of which, however, is entire. The inhabitants, who in 1871 numbered 12,921, cultivate grain and manu- facture cheese in sufficient quantities to maintain a moder- ate trade. Cangi Yetere or Old Gangi, in the vicinity, is identified, according to a conjecture of Cluverius, with the ancient linguium or Engyum. The foundation of Enguium was ascribed by Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch to a Cretan