Ganges

, a large river of India, falling into the Indian ocean, said by Lucan to be the boundary of Alexander’s victories in the east. It inundates the adjacent country in the summer. Like other rivers, it was held in the greatest veneration by the inhabitants, and this superstition is said to exist still in some particular instances. The Ganges is now discovered to rise in the mountains of Thibet, and to run upwards of 2000 miles before it reaches the sea, receiving in its course the tribute of several rivers, 11 of which are superior to the Thames, and often equal to the great body of the waters of the Rhine. Lucan , bk. 3 , li. 230 .— Strabo , bk. 5 .— Pliny , bk. 6 , ch. 87 .— Curtius , bk. 8 , ch. 9 .— Mela , bk. 3 , ch. 7 .— Virgil , Æneid , bk. 9 , li. 31 .