Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/563

Rh anchors till daylight, for the intricacies of the channel forbid an ascent by night. The island lies just above the level of the sea, and has a dreary aspect. After passing its shores, the coast upon your right hand continues of the same low character, and wears the aspect of a complete wilderness. This jungly tract of land, intersected by crossing creeks and streams, is known as the Sonderbunds. It is the home of savage beasts of prey, and the abode of every noxious reptile. Once, and that not at a distant period, it was cultivated by a rural population, but war spread its ravages over the land; and it is now given up to the prowling tiger, the serpent, the crocodile, and their fellows, while fever broods upon the atmosphere, and adds to the terrors of the place.

The river now begins to assume its proper dimensions, allowing you to see both of its banks; but it is still some miles wide, and rolls on to the sea, its turbid yellow current loaded with alluvial matter from the uplands, with wonderful volume and swiftness. We are told that were two thousand ships, each bearing fifteen hundred tons of soil, to sail down every day in the year, they would not carry as much solid matter as is borne to the ocean in a single day