"The expression 'falls into the main line' is somewhat different from what
we use at home; but the young man ought to have understood you," interposed
the commander.
"What would you have said, Captain?"
"The loop-line we call a branch, and we say connects with instead of falls
into," replied the captain. "But your meaning was plain enough, and our
boys must fall into the methods of expression used here."
"Though you have seen the Ganges several times, not much has been said
about it; and I will tell you a little more concerning it before we leave,
not to see it again. It rises in Gahrwal, one of the Hill states,
north-east of Delhi. It has its source in an ice-cave nearly fourteen
thousand feet above the level of the sea. It is not called the Ganges till
it has received the flow of two other rivers, a hundred and fifty miles or
more from its lofty source. Just below Allahabad it takes in the Jumna,
itself a mighty stream.
"As you have learned, it is the holy river of the Hindus; and it deserves
their homage, for, aside from the religious character they give to it,
three hundred thousand square miles are drained and fertilized by the
Ganges and its tributaries. Of its sanctity, that it washes away sin, and
that death in its waters or on its shores is the passport to eternal bliss,
you have learned. But it renders a more immediate and practical service to
the people; for it is navigable for small craft from the point where it
enters the lowlands, seventy or eighty miles north of Delhi.
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