404 TISTA
of the Himalayas. The Tista is not navigable by trading boats in
its course through the hills, although canoes, roughly cut from the
sal timber on its banks, have been taken down the river from a
point some 8 miles above the plains. Where it enters the plains it
has a width of 700 or 8oo yards, and becomes navigable by boats
Of a tons burden; but for some distance navigation is very difficult
and precarious, owing to the rapids and the numerous rocks and
boulders in the bed of the river.
After a short course through the Darjeeling tarai the Tista passes
into Jalpaiguri District at its north-western corner, and, flowing in
a south-easterly direction, forms the boundary between the Western
Duars and the permanently settled portion of the District. Here
its principal tributaries, all on the left or east bank of the river, are
the Lisu or Lish, the Ghish, and the Saldanga. The Tista then
traverses a small portion of the western extremity of the Cooch
Behar State, and flows across Rangpur District to join the Brahma-
putra. In this District it receives numerous small tributary streams
from the north-west and throws off many offshoots of more or less
importance, the largest being the Ghaghat, which probably marks
an old bed of the main river. Another branch is the Manas, which
rejoins the parent stream after a winding course of about 25 miles.
In the lower part of its course the Tista has a fine channel, from
6oo to 8oo yards wide, with a large volume of water at all times
of the year and a rapid current. Although it is capable of floating
large trading boats between 3 and 4 tons burden at all seasons,
navigation becomes difficult in the cold season, owing to the shoals
and quicksands which form at its junction with the Brahmaputra, and
the small islands and sandbanks thrown up by the current. The
lower reaches, from Kapasia to Nalganj Hat, are called the Pagla
('mad') river, owing to the frequent and violent changes in its course.
Old channels abound, such as the Chota (°small'), Burhi (`old'),
and Mara (' dead') Tista, each of which must at one time have formed
the main channel of the river, but which are now deserted and only
navigable in the rains.
At the time of Major Rennell's survey (towards the close of the
eighteenth century) the main stream of the Tista flowed south down
the bed of the KARATOVi, instead of south-east as at present, and,
joining the Atrai in Dinajpur, finally fell into the Ganges. But in
the destructive floods of 1787, which' form an epoch in the history
of Rangpur, the main stream swelled by incessant rains suddenly
forsook its channel. and forced its way into the Ghaghat. This latter
stream was unable to carry. off such a vast accession to its waters;
and the Tista spread itself over the District, causing widespread de-
struction to life and property, till it succeeded in cutting for itself
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