CALCUTTA: PAST AND PRESENT
the remains of the New Dock, disclosed also a portion of a large drain in perfect order, which was readily recognized as the "main drain," by which the old open sewers of the town used to be flushed. This drain, which was found to lie about sixty feet back from the present roadway of Hare Street, was arranged to admit water from the river at high tides, by means of a sluice-gate. It ran underground from the river to Dalhousie Square, where it emerged, and continued its course as a surface drain. When, at suitable tides, the sluice was opened, the inrush of water, sweeping along this channel, flushed the principal sewers of the town, and finally found an outlet in the Creek, the remains of the old Calcutta creek, which had gradually been filled up as roads were made and houses built The course of the Creek from the river had been eastward, along Hastings Street and Government Place, till it crossed Bentinck Street; here it took a sweep to the south, and so again eastward along the southern side of Dhurrumtolla Street, a locality marked in the old maps as Dinga Banga (" Broken or Wrecked Boat "), till it returned to a more northerly course near Wellington Square. From this point, till it found its way to the salt-water lakes at Belliaghatta, the old bed of the Creek remained, long
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