size during the hot season, but during the rains form one large sheet of water. The Nawárangá, Saulmárí, and Sálukuriá bíls, together with other small marshes at the union of the Mor and Kuiyá with the Dwarka, also form during the rainy season a large lake, about twenty miles square. Colonel Gastrell, the Revenue Surveyor, remarks that these large bils at the confluences of the hill streams serve during the floods as natural drainage basins, into which the river waters pour. On the subsidence of the rise in the streams, the waters pent up in the bils find their way back again into the rivers gradually and quietly, and are thus drained off. But for these large reservoirs, the southern part of the Rárh would be much injured by floods from the hills.'

In the Rárh or western half of the District, there are two very large artificial tanks. The one is the Ságar Dighí, situated near the line of railway from Nalhátí to Azimganj, not far from the latter town. The other is called Ramná Shaikh Dighí.

There are no CANALS of any importance in the District. The Chutor, in the south-western corner, appears to be an embanked artificial channel.

THE LOSS OF LIFE BY DROWNING, so far as reported to the police, during the years 1862-1867, was 666, which would give an average for those six years of 111.

RIVER TRAFFIC.-There are several towns in Murshidábád which conduct a thriving trade on the Ganges and Bhagirathí. Bhagwángolá on the Ganges, in the tháná or police circle of the same name, is a depôt for indigo seed brought down by water from Upper Bengal. It is strictly a river town, being entirely dependent upon its trade, and shifting its position every season according to the varying level of the stream. During the rains, when the Ganges overflows the low lands lying beneath the permanent town, boats discharge or take in their cargo there. On the subsiding of the waters, a village immediately springs up on the low land at the river's edge, at which the native boats now touch. It is called Alátali or New Bhagwángolá. Dhulián is the only other town on the Ganges with river trade. On the Bhagirathí are situated Jangipur, with its suburb of Raghunathganj, and Jiáganj, which forms one town with Azimganj on the opposite side of the river. At Dhulián and Jangipur are mercantile communities engaged in river traffic. The imports comprise tobacco, oil-seeds, sugar, ghi, wheat, and gram, and occasionally rafts of timber from the upper Provinces. Jangipur also sends out

silk. The Deputy-Collector reported in 1870 that the commerce of these river towns was being fast absorbed by the railway. Jiaganj is the most considerable mercantile place in the District. It is the residence of numerous mahájans (native merchants), who deal chiefly in cotton, saltpetre, sugar, rice, and silk. Since the opening of the railways, the river-borne traffic of the District has largely fallen off. A steamer on the Bhagirathí has become an unusual sight; but even now, during the rains, native craft of all sizes, and of every imaginable rig, cover the surface of this river. The commonest names for these native boats are ulakh, chuprá-ulakh, bhar, holá, and palwár. Occasionally also a large raft of timber, bearing a tiny village, goes drifting past, on its way to Calcutta from the mountains of Nepál. In the Census of 1872, the number of boats in the District enumerated was 1592, of which total considerably more than one-half were in the Subdivision of Jangipur. Further details concerning the river traffic of the District, together with the latest statistics, will be given subsequently under the heading Commerce and Trade.

USES OF THE WATER SUPPLY,It is not known that any of the rivers or streams in the District are utilized as a motive power for turning mills or in other ways. The Collector reports that the fall in the Bánsloi river is amply sufficient to permit of its being so applied, but only in the rainy season. In the western part of the District, the waters of the bils, rivers, and tanks are extensively used for the purposes of irrigation. In the eastern part of the District this is not so much the case, for the annual inundations of the great rivers supply sufficient moisture for the crops. A full description of the processes of irrigation resorted to will be found on a later page in connection with Agriculture.

FISHERIES, FISHING COMMUNITIES, AND FISH.-The fisheries in Murshidábád District are not so profitable as might be expected from the extent of its water area. A considerable quantity of the fish consumed in the city of Murshidábád is regularly imported from Maldah and other parts. The Ganges abounds in fish at all times of the year, and on its banks reside a large number of fishermen. The Bhagirathí and the Jalangi furnish their principal supply during the rainy season. Among confined waters, the Bhándárdaha bil is most plentifully stocked with fish; but the Telkar and other bils also give employment to a considerable fishing population. In the Bhándárdaha and Saulá bíls, and in the Mutí jhil, there is found a

FISHERIES, FISHING COMMUNITIES, ETC. 31

species of mussel (Unio), which occasionally contains pearls; but they are not plentiful, nor of good size or colour. Some wealthy members of the Jain community have taken leases of extensive fisheries in the Bhagirathí, in order to prevent the fish from being caught. It is impossible to present even an approximate estimate of the collective value of the fisheries. The Deputy-Collector was only able to furnish the following figures :-A rent of £310 a year was paid some time ago by the farmer of Bhándárdaha bíl; the total rent paid to Government by the farmers of all the Government fisheries in the District amounts to £98 per annum. In the villages that line the banks of the rivers and the bíls, a considerable proportion of the inhabitants live by the fish they catch. In Bálighát on the Bhagirathí, opposite Jangipur, out of 304 families, the DeputyCollector estimates that about 70 are supported in this way. On the whole, he conjectures that I per cent. of the population in the Subdivision of Jangipur live by fishing, and about the same all along the Ganges and the Jalangi; but in the north-west and south-west of the District this proportion is not maintained. The Census of 1872 gives the total number of Hindus who belong to the boating and fishing castes at only 26,100, which is 3.56 of the entire Hindu population. To this total there should be added the number of Muhammadan fishermen; and it must be borne in mind that the Musalmán element, though in a slight minority in the entire District, greatly predominates in those tracts which border on the Ganges. It seems probable, therefore, that the conjecture of the Deputy-Collector is below the actual truth.

The following list of fish found in Murshidábád District is taken from a special report on the subject by the Commissioner of Rájsháhí Division, dated September 1872:—River fishes—(1) Air, (2) báchá, (3) bagháir, (4) baliá, (5) baus, (6) bátá, (7) batkiá, (8) bhangná, (9) bhedá, (10) boáil, (11) carp, (12) chandá, (13) chelá, (14) chingri or boro ichá, (15) ching or chingurás, (16) chitál, (17) darí, (18) dánkoná, (19) dhaí or silim, (20) eel or baim, (21) gágar, (22) gárí, (23) hilsá, (24) ichá or boro chingri, (25) karti, (26) kátá, (27) katlá, (28) kharsán, (29) kharsolá, (30) khayrá, (31) mágur, (32) matrá, (33) mírgál, (34) mayá or maurallá, (35) pábdá, (36) pangás, (37) piuli, (38) punthí, (39) rithá, (40) ruhí, (41) saul, (42) sankoch or sankar, (43) tengrá, (44) urát. Tank fishes,-(1) Air, (2) boáil, (3) chitál, (4) ching, (5) chingrí, (6) dánkoná, (7) gágar, (8) guchi, (9) halangá, (10) katlá, (11) khalisá, (12) khayrá, (13) kai, (14) kunchá,

(15) mágur, (16) mayá, (17) mirgál, (18) phaului, (19) punthi, (20) ruhi, (21) saul, (22) tengrá,

MARSH PRODUCTS, ETC.—It is not known whether there are at present any embankments in Murshidábád District whose direct object is the furtherance of cultivation. There was formerly a small embankment along a portion of the Ganges near Khámrá, but it has now been abandoned, apparently because the level of the land which it protected has been sufficiently raised. The important embankments along the left bank of the Bhagirathí, to keep back the annual floods of that river, will be described on a subsequent page in connection with the preventive measures against Natural Calamities.

The edges and beds of the numerous bils and nálás, as the waters dry up, are cultivated to the furthest extent. The long sloping banks of the nálás and kháls yield good crops of mustard, wheat, and other grains. In the vicinity of the bíls, boro rice, a coarse-grained, red variety, is largely sown. With the advance of the dry weather, this is transplanted into the marsh lands, and afterwards harvested in the end of March or April. The Deputy-Collector is of opinion that a great deal might be done without much expense, by means of drainage, to render the swamps far more profitable. He instances the Bánsabáti bíl, which in the rains extends almost the whole way from Bálighát on the Bhagirathi to the hills of the Santál Parganás. In the hot weather the whole of this area is dry except a few lowlying spots, and these might easily be drained. He also mentions the Krishna Sáil, which is evidently the bed of an old river. There are still some very deep pools, but the greater part could be made fit for cultivation. In many of the bíls a process of natural reclamation is going on. Their beds are gradually being elevated, by mud washed down by the rivers and streams which pour into them during the rains, and by the dry soil which is blown over them during the season of the hot winds. The Deputy-Collector states that, owing to these causes, the margin of tillage has been observed of late years steadily to advance.

Reeds are occasionally produced on the borders of the marshes, but cane is not grown.

LONG-STEMMED RICE is occasionally grown in the marshes, but not to any very great extent. The Deputy-Collector states that it has been known to grow in water 15 or 18 feet deep; but he is not aware that any artificial increase has been effected in the length of

the stem.

The following are the names for the four chief varieties : -(1) Jhingásáil; (2) ajan; (3) bangatá; (4) bhusuri.

LINES OF DRAINAGE.-The general inclination of the District is from north-west to south-east; but as the channels of the main rivers do not uniformly take this direction, the lines of drainage are somewhat irregular and perplexing. The western half of the District slopes eastwards toward the Bhagirathí; but the greater number of the hill streams do not find their way directly into that river, but are intercepted by the bils, and for the most part carried off to the south by the Dwarká river. The two chief drainage basins (if such they can be called) in this part of the District are that of the Bánsloi in the north, and that of the Dwarká with its confluents in the south. The use of the large bils, in acting as reservoirs to break the violence of the floods of these hill streams, has already been mentioned. The bíls also serve to drain the surrounding country, and discharge their surplus water through the streams which issue out of them. The eastern half of the District may be described as an isosceles triangle with its apex to the north-west, whose equal sides are formed by the Ganges and the Bhagirathí, and whose base is almost closed by the Jalangi. The line of drainage is not along any of these rivers, but might be represented by a line intersecting the base at right angles. The local rainfall in this part of the District does not run off either into the Ganges or the Bhagirathí. In the same way the floods of these two great rivers converge towards each other, and ultimately make their way across the country in a south-easterly direction. It may roughly be stated that the greater part of the surplus water ultimately falls into the Jalangi by means of the Gobrá nálá, the Bhairab, and the Siálmárí. The south-east border of the District is in this way rendered extremely moist all the year through, and the effects produced are thus described by the Revenue Surveyor :-'These channels are during the rains connected with the different bils and kháls, forming a network of water communication in this part of the District. In the hot weather, a great number of springs may be observed along their banks, caused apparently by the drainage waters percolating through the under-strata of sand and sandy soil.'

THE MINERAL PRODUCTS of the District are, of course, confined to the elevated tract in the west, and especially the north-west. There is no coal; but earth containing traces of iron is found in Palsá tháná. The character of all the soil in this neighbourhood

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