Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/234

 ;

BEHAR.

224

Darbhanga, Saran, Champaran, Monghyr, Bhagalpur, Purneah, Maldah, and the Santal Parganas all of which see separately. Area, 44,139 square miles, with 77,407 villages and towns, and 3,520,896 occupied

—

houses.

Population (1881) 23,127,104 souls. etc The country generally

Physical Aspects,

.

—

is

flat,

except in the

Monghyr, where detached hills occur, and in the southeast of the Province, where the Rajmahal and Santal ranges abut upon District of

the plains.

The

highest

hill is

IMoher (1620

feet), in

Gaya

District



the

range in the Santal Parganas varies from 800 to 1600 feet in height.

The

great river is the Ganges, which, entering at Baxar and leaving Rajmahal, divides the Province into two almost equal portions the northern comprising the Districts of Saran, Champaran, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Purniah, and Maldah, with parts of Monghyr and Bhagalpur and the southern containing Shahabad, Patna, Gaya, the Santal Parganas, and the remainder of Monghyr and Bhagalpur Districts. Both portions are watered by large tributaries of the Ganges, the chief of these being the Gogra, the Gandak, the Kusi, the INIahananda in the

—

at

north,

and the Son (Soane)

in the south.

The Behar Canal

system, avail-

able both for navigation and irrigation, comprises the Son, Arrah,

and

Baxar Main Canals, with a number of branches and minor distribuIn 1881-82 there were 2 t 6| miles of navigable main canal taries. open, with 148 miles of branch canals, and 1034 miles of minor dis-

The

tributaries.

acres, being

total

area

during the year was 178,075 than in the previous year, due to

irrigated

about 30,000 acres

less

A Government steamer service is maintained on each of the three main lines of canals. The total number of boats using the Canals in 1881-82 was 10,688, of a total burthen of 113,971

the favourable rainfall.

tons, carrying cargoes to the value of ;^445,358.

The

canals yielded

revenue of ^73,629 in 1881-82, of which ;!^6o,393 was The working expenses were ^45,372) leaving derived from water-rates.

a

total

a net revenue of ^27,897.

each canal in

its

A

more

alphabetical order.

detailed account will be found of

Within the past few years railway

communication has much advanced, and considerable further extensions Besides the loop and are either in progress or under consideration. chord lines of the great East Indian Railway, both of which intersect the Province, and after forming a junction at Lakhisarai, leave Behar at Baxar, the Patna and Gaya, and the Tirhut State Railways are open for traffic Further extensions of the Tirhut Railway and its branches are under construction or in course of survey, and new schemes are projected. Other and more detailed information regarding the Province will be found in the separate articles on the Districts composing it, to which the reader is referred for agricultural, adThe most important industries of ministrative, and trade statistics, etc. the Province are the manufacture of opium and indigo.