Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/354

 BHAGALPUR.

344

The fields of wheat and gram, instead of being neat and regular plots, form shapeless and irregular large patches of dhdk jungle appear.

spaces of ground; and the villages

become

scattered.

This part of

the country has been but recently reclaimed from jungle.

The river system of the District consists of a reach of the Ganges about 6o miles in length, with numerous Himalayan affluents on its north bank

and on the south a few



hill

streams, which during the

greater part of the year are sandy water-courses, but in the rains rivers of considerable size, although unnavigable

and the uncertainty of the duration of

from

become

their rapidity,

The northern

their floods.

have mostly a direction from north to south, with a slight inclination eastwards. The larger of these rise amongst the Nepdl outliers of the Himalayas, and fall, after a more or less tortuous course, into the Ghugrf, which itself joins the Kiisi in the extreme east of

rivers

Bhigalpur, about six miles above the confluence of that river with the (janges, opposite Colgong.

northern

rivers,

The most important

of these secondary,

are the Tiljuga, Bati, Dimra, Talaba, Parwan, Kusf,

Dhusan, Chalauni, I^oran, Katna, Daus, and Ghugn'. Ganges, the only stream w'orthy of separate notice

South of the

is

the Chandan,

floods from which, although partially restrained by embankments, sometimes inundate the country for miles around, and cause great injury to the crops. The larger rivers are navigable throughout the year by boats of the heaviest burden, and the minor streams by smaller craft during the rainy season. Very marked changes have taken place in the courses of the two most important of the rivers the Ganges and tlie

—

The stream

of the Ganges in 1864 ran directly below the town of Bhagalpur, and steamers anchored close under the houses of

the Kiisi.

the residents



a few years earlier the river flowed equally near the

northern bank, formed by pargand Chhdi



its

The channel of the Kiisi seems w'estward for many centuries the

these limits. steadily

is between been advancing

present course to have



large

trading village

of

Nathpur, which in 1850 lay some miles to the west of the river, has not only been swept away, but its site has been left many miles to the eastward.

There

is

no sheet of water

in

Bhagalpur of

sufficient size or

depth

Conon the south of the Ganges are inundated every year, w’hich as they dry up are cultivated in the cold weather with abundant crops of wheat and Indian corn. The forests comprise two small areas of about 40 and 30 square miles respectively in the southern to be called a lake.

Shallow marshes, however, are numerous.

siderable tracts of land

hilly country.

In the north of the District there are in parts

scrub jungle, interspersed with large

The

much low

tasar silk-worm

is

and forms an important The principal mineral product is galena, found in

reared by the castes along the forest industry.

trees.

hill

frontier,