THERE is a regular steam communication between Calcutta and Allahabad; but as the steamers proceed no further than that city, it may not be out of place to give the reader a few words on Steam Navigation, at least so far as the Ganges is concerned. Until steamers were introduced, the only way of proceeding by water from Calcutta to Allahabad, and the intermediate stations, was by boats, the largest of which are called budgerows and pinnaces. About twenty years ago, the East India Company ordered four steamers to be built for the navigation of the Ganges, much against the advice of many, who urged the impossibility of using steam in consequence of the shifting sands. They were accordingly built in England, and shipped in pieces to Calcutta, where they were put together by able engineers. For many years these government boats were the only steamers seen on the Ganges; but latterly two Companies have been started, the one called "the India General Steam Navigation Company," established in 1844, and the other, "the Ganges Company." The control of the government steamers is under the judicious management of Captain J.H. Johnston, R.N. The number of boats on the Ganges belonging to government alone, is as follows:--ten steamers, three accommodation, three cargo, and two troop-boats. On an average, one steamer leaves Calcutta every ten or fourteen days, having an accommodation-boat, or sometimes one or two cargo or troop-boats, in tow. This is a striking and novel sight. Every one is aware that a ship at sea will take another in tow, which is effected by the ship to be towed sending out hawsers; but in very bad weather they disengage themselves by casting off the towing-hawsers. Besides these hawsers for joining one with the other, there is a plank of wood, twenty-five feet in length, a foot in width, and six inches in thickness, placed between two short masts, one at the bow of the accommodation, cargo or troop-boat, the other at the stern of the steamer, to each of which it is bound by chains. This plank serves as a mutual convenience to the crews of the two vessels, without its being requisite to lower a boat; besides, if it were not for this more solid material, accidents would frequently happen by the vessel in tow running foul of her leader; whereas, as it is, should the steamer touch ground unexpectedly, the other sheers quietly alongside.