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— BARD IVAN.

26 Physical Aspects

The

.

District

scenery tame and uninteresting

western corner adjoining the



is

for

the most

part

flat,

and the

the only exception being the north-

Santal Parganas, where the country

is

undulating and covered with jungle, which gives shelter to leopards, Except in this corner of the wolves, and other wild animals.

covered with large rice fields, and studded hidden among clumps of bamboos, palms, Large trees are scarce. The soil consists plantains, and mangoes. There are no hills in the of an alluvial deposit of great depth. The principal rivers which flow through Bardwan are the District. Damodar, the Dhalkisor or Dwarkeswar, the Khan', the Bank^, and The the Ajai, all of which eventually join the Bhagi'rathi or Hugh'. Damodar marks a portion of the western boundary of the District, and the Ajai forms a natural boundary line for some distance on the north. The Barakhar, too, though not properly speaking a river of Bardwan, flows for a short distance along its north-west boundary and separates The Banka it from Manbhum District until it falls into the Damodar. rises near Bardwan town, and flows a circuitous westerly and northwesterly course for about 60 miles. It is connected with the Damodar Canal by sluices, and supplies the Eden Canal with water throughout the year. It is also the chief source of the water supply of the town of Bardwan. The Eden Canal, called after a late Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, is an irrigation channel, about 20 miles in length, reaching from the suburbs of Bardwan town to Selimabad, at the mouth of the Kana District,

with

the land

little

is

hamlets

A number of small tributaries of and flow through the District, and a network of

nadi in the south of the District. these rivers rise in

small

creeks

and watercourses

intersects

the

countrj’.

A

curious

change in the course of the Bhagirathi took place in the beginning of this century, when the stream suddenly changed its course and left the town of Nadiya, which was formerly on the east bank, a considerable With this exception, no great changes have distance on the west. The towns recently taken place in the river courses of this District. containing a large community chiefly supported by river traffic are Kalna (Culna), Katwa (Cutwa), Dainhat, Bhausingh, Millipur, and Uddhanpur, on the Bhagirathi, where a large trade is carried on in salt, jute, and cloth; and Selimabad, Babnabari, and Kasba, on the Damodar, where the traffic consists chiefly in coal, rice, and timber. Fishing furnishes an occupation to a great number of persons on the Bhagirathi, Damodar, and Dhalkkisor, and along the internal rivers and channels. There are no large marshy tracts in Bardwan requiring reclamation



but

it

is

a very

common

practice to

embank

the smaller

and streams, with a view to cultivation, and to the irrigation of the fields. These embankments and dams form a serious obstruction to the natural drainage of the District, and are supposed to have largely rivers