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Rh On the Ichhámatí.—Chánduriá, in the north of the District, carries on a trade in molasses.

On the Betná.—Kalároá and Jháudángá; principal articles of trade, paddy and sugar.

On the Sátkhirá Khál.—Sátkhird contains a large bázár, and carries on a considerable trade in rice.

.—Canal or river water is not generally used for purposes of irrigation; but in seasons of drought it is sometimes taken advantage of by the cultivators in the southern part of the District. The contrivances used for raising the water to the field are very simple. A hollow trunk of a tree is lowered into the river or stream, and lifted by leverage. Another mode is by a contrivance called the suiní. Two ropes are attached to the wedge-shaped end of a triangular basket, and one to each of its other ends. It is worked by two men, each holding two of the ropes, who plunge it into the water, and then throw up its contents to a passage constructed to carry the water to the field to be irrigated. Water is also introduced into Sundarban clearings and elsewhere from fresh-water rivers, by means of sluices constructed in the embankments along the side of the streams, or, if necessary, by making a cut through them. River water is nowhere utilized for the purpose of turning machinery.

.—The District, intersected by numerous streams and watercourses, contains several important fisheries, but no data exist for calculating their extent or value. Fishermen reside in considerable numbers in many villages along the sides of the rivers and Kháls, and the following are almost wholly inhabited by fishing castes:—Kultí Bihárí, on the Kultí Gáng ; Tárdaha, on the Bidyádharí; Tiorpárá and Chingríhátá, on the Báliághátá Canal; and Budge Budge (Baj-baj), Manirámpur, and Uriyápárá Paltá, on the Húglí. The Collector in 1870 estimated that the proportion of the fishing and boating population of the 24 Parganás did not much exceed three per cent. of the total population. This, however, was too low an estimate, as the Census Report of 1872 showed a total of 327,009 people in the District belonging to the fishing and boating castes, or 14 per cent. of the total population. The revenue derived by Government from the Fisheries of the District amounts to about £595 per annum. No revenue is obtained from the fisheries in the large navigable rivers, which are freely open to the people, nor from private fisheries; consequently no data can be collected for estimating the net value of the fisheries.