be divided into the northern or inland part, which is dry and fairly raised delta-land of old formation, and the seaboard Sundarbans on the south,—a vast network of rivers and swamps, which creep sluggishly through dense uninhabited jungle into the sea. This seaboard Division exhibits a very typical specimen of new deltaic formations. It discloses the process of land-making in an unfinished state, and presents the last stage in the life of a great river,—the stage in which it merges, through a region of half land, half water, almost imperceptibly into the sea. A description of the Mahánadí Sundarbans will be found in the Statistical Accounts of the Orissa Districts; and the Gangetic Sundarbans of the 24 Parganás exhibit similar phenomena on a larger scale. For certain fiscal purposes they are under a special officer, termed the Commissioner of the Sundarbans, and a separate account of them will be given at the end of this volume.
As in all deltaic districts, the river banks silt up till they become the highest levels; from which the ground gradually slopes downward, and forms a depressed tract midway between each set of two rivers. I have fully explained this in another work.[1] The depressed portions form natural basins, destitute of an exit for the water; and hence the numerous marshes (bils) and swamps between the larger rivers. I give a list of the chief of these marshes in a subsequent page. They are chiefly situated in the eastern part of the District. The portion of the District in the vicinity of the Salt-Water Lake, near Calcutta, is intersected in every direction by innumerable watercourses (khals) and rivers, flooding the country at spring tides. Embankments have been raised by the cultivators to keep out the tidal waters when the crop is on the ground. In the northern parts of the District the soil is very rich; but in the southern tracts, from a line drawn across the District about ten miles south of Calcutta, the ground is impregnated with salt which, however, seems to have little effect on the crops. A peculiarity of the north-eastern part of the District, where the land is generally high, is the number of date trees. This part of the country is studded with palm groves; and in several places there are extensive plantations, especially on the outskirts of villages. The produce of the trees is boiled down into gur, or molasses, by the cultivators, and sold to the refiners for the purpose of being manufactured into
- ↑ Orissa, vol. ii. 178-180; see also my Statistical Account of Cattack, being App. iv. to that volume.
