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 BENGAL.

283

of the simpler and more compact ihands adopted for purposes of police.

The thdnd

A

or police circle

is

now

the unit of local administration.

better idea of the respective size of the different territorial divisions

of Bengal than can be gained by a mere statement of figures,

may be

obtained by contrasting them with other and more familiar areas.

Thus, the area of the Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal, including the Feudatory States and the tiger-haunted swamps of the Sundarbans, is

than that of Spain, and a good deal more than half as England and Wales. It exceeds the aggregate area of European States, namely, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland,

very

little less

large again as five

and Greece. One of its four provinces, Behar, is nearly as extensive as the new kingdom of Roumania, or the ancient kingdom of Poland. Chutia Nagpur is a little larger than Ceylon, and a little smaller than Bavaria. Orissa (British) is of almost equal extent with Saxony and the area of the Feudatory States is rather more than that of Portugal. Taking the nine Divisions or Commissionerships, their average area is somewhat larger than that of Switzerland while of the largest ones, Patna and Bhagalpur, the former is almost exactly co-extensive with Belgium and the Netherlands, while the latter is considerably larger than Greece. Dacca Division is the size of Denmark, and the combined area of Rajshahi and Bardwan Divisions equals that of Scotland.



The

average Bengal District, with an area of 3323 square miles, is any county in England or Ireland, except Yorkshire, and is most nearly approached by Argyleshire in Scotland. considerably larger than

The large Districts exceed Kingdom and the largest

in extent

any single county

of them, Lohardaga,

is

whole of Wales together with the county of York. larger than the Irish Province of Connaught.

The

in the

United

greater than the

Hazaribagh

is

Santal Parganas and

the Chittagong Hill Tracts are each about as extensive as Alsace-

The

Lorraine.

smallest

Bengal

the suburban Howrah, is and not much smaller than the

District,

nearly twice the size of Middlesex,

kingdom of Fife. This, however, is an exceptionally small District, and scarcely more extensive than the average Bengal Sub-division. The next smallest District to it, Hugh', is nearly four times its size, and almost as large as Gloucestershire. Each Sub-division of a Bengal District is, on the average, exactly the size of an average English county and the average thdnd or police circle is rather more than ’

‘



twice the size of Malta.

The

average population of each of the 45 Districts of Bengal is a than a million and a half, the figures ranging from 3,051,966

little less

Maimansingh, to 101,597 in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Nine have a population of more than two million souls, while only seven fall below three-quarters of a million. Comparing the population

in

Districts

with that of other countries,

it

will

be seen that the population ruled