There are no objects in nature which mankind, in the early stages of society, are more prone to regard with gratitude and admiration than great rivers. The fame of the Ganges was widely spread abroad even in the earliest times; and it is no wonder that the British, when they became masters of India, should view with peculiar curiosity a river which was to the natives an object of the profoundest veneration. Of its sources nothing certain could be known; in most maps they were placed far to the north in Tatary, as it was thought necessary that the fountains of so great a stream should be situated at an immense distance from its mouth. A few only were disposed to think that it had its rise on the south side of the Himalyeh or Snowy Mountains, which form the northern boundary of India.

To decide this question, lieutenant Webb, accompanied by captains Raper and Hearsay, was despatched in 1808, with directions to proceed to Gangoutri, where he was to view the narrow of the Ganges called the Cow's Mouth, a spot held sacred by the Hindoos. They arrived at Haridwar on the 1st of April, and had the pleasure of viewing the immense crowds which are assembled on the plains here every twelfth year by the double motives of commerce and religion. At this point merchants arrive from all parts of India, as well as from Cashmere, and the countries beyond the Punjab and the Himalyeh: the numbers assembled at the fair was supposed by the British officers not to fall short of 2,000,000.