Cotton from India: a cotton fleet descending the Ganges - casting off from Mirzapore early in the morning, 1862. Boats en route to ...Calcutta, for the purpose of shipping the cotton to Europe. The cotton not having been submitted to any pressure, the bales are of an unwieldy size, and the space occupied by them necessitates the employment of the largest and broadest boats the Ganges can provide, outrigger beams being generally attached to the boats sides to give more space for the shapeless masses. This will account for the unnatural and grotesque-looking craft employed in this trade. As the current of the Ganges runs very swiftly, the usual masts of the boats are struck, a small and stunted pole only being used to hold one small and generally ragged sail, holding just sufficient wind to give the boats steerage way. The boats are all flat-bottomed, no two being of the same tonnage, size, shape, or pattern...India has all the requisite qualities, both in its diversity of soils and climate, to constitute it the greatest cotton-growing country in the world; already the area under cotton is four times greater than the area under similar cultivation in the Southern States of North America.... From "Illustrated London News", 1862.