es. The colony is divided into
two provinces--the Western Province, of which Cape Town is the capital;
and the Eastern Province, of which Graham's Town is the capital. Each
province is divided into districts, many of which retain the old Dutch
names; indeed, nearly all the places in the long settled parts are
called by the appellations given them by the early possessors of the
colony.

There are no navigable rivers; and as the country is wild and
mountainous, the means of communication are not easy. To the east,
about five hundred miles from the frontier, is the new settlement of
Natal, which, from its beautiful climate, and many excellent qualities,
promises some day to become a very valuable possession.

Having got our stores on board, the Blue Peter was hoisted, our
passengers again collected in their accustomed places, full of all the
things they had seen and heard, and once more we were ploughing the
ocean towards the mouth of the wealth-bearing Hoogly.

CHAPTER FIVE.

Our voyage was most propitious, and, without any event worthy of notice,
we approached the mouth of the Hoogly, on the shore of which stands
Calcutta, the magnificent city whither we were bound. While still some
way off the land the pilot came on board to take charge of the ship; and
now, from the heavy responsibility which had so long weighed on the
shoulders of Captain Willis, he was in part relieved, as the pilot
became answerable for the safety of the ship. While we slowly glide up
the placid stream, one of the mouths of the far-famed Ganges, the sacred
river of the Hindoos, I will give a short description of it.

The Ganges is 1,500 miles long, and as far as 500 miles from the sea the
channel is thirty feet deep, when, during the dry season, the river is
at its lowest, while so great even there is its width, that it appears
like an inland sea. At 200 miles from the ocean the Ganges separates
into two branches; the south-east retaining the name of the Ganges, and
the west assuming the appellation of the Hoogly; the delta, or
triangular space between the two, being called the Sunderbunds.

Among the eternal snows of the lofty mountains of the Himalaya, 20,000
feet above the level of the sea, in latitude 30 degrees north, is found
the source of this superb stream. It is said to issue out of the
precipitous side of a lofty mountain, from beneath an arch 300 feet
high, composed of deep frozen layers of snow, surrounded by icicles of