on which the current strikes, and sloping on the other. They form a series of curves, whose length Mr. J. Fergusson has endeavoured to reduce to laws in his essay on the Gangetic Delta. Their beds in the Sundarbans consist of vegetable mould, and in the northern part of the District of sand or clay. With the exception of the Sundarbans, the land along the banks of the rivers is generally cultivated. Some small islands have formed in the bed of the Jamuná in the Basurhát and Sátkhirá Subdivisions, and several larger ones in the different mouths of the Ganges along the sea face of the Sundarbans. Of these, the most important is Ságar Island, already mentioned, situated at the point where the Húglí debouches into the Bay of Bengal. With the exception of the Sonái, an offshoot of the Ichhámatí, in the north of the District, they are all subject to tidal influences. The Húglí alone has a bore. None of the streams anywhere enter the earth by a subterranean course, nor do they expand into lakes.
Lakes, Marshes, etc.—The 24 Parganás, like other Delta Districts, are studded with large marshes and swamps (bils), situated between the elevated tracts which mark the course of the rivers. The principal of these are the following:—(1) The Dhápá, or Salt-Water Lake, which commences about five miles east from Calcutta, between the Húglí and the Bidyádharí, and which contains an area of about thirty square miles. (2) The Kulgáchhí, situated to the west of Bálindá, in the centre of the insular portion surrounded by the Bidyádharí River and the Kátákhál (3) The Barití bil, half-way between the towns of Bálindá and Básurhát, between the Bidyádharí and Jamuná Rivers. (4) Bayrá bil, the largest in the District, comprising an area of forty square miles, the greater part of which is covered with reed jungle, situated east of the Jamuná. (4 and 5) The Ballí and Dántbhángá bils, the former containing ten and the latter twelve square miles, are also situated east of the Jamuná, to the north of Bayrá bil. (6) Bil Barttí, east of Sámnagar, a station on the Eastern Bengal Railway. (7) Dholkerá bil, south-east of the town of Bárásat. (8) The Gházalmári bil. (9) The Nagarghátá and (10) Khálskhálí bils, east of the Bayrá.
Canals and Artificial Watercourses.—The following is a list of the canals or artificial watercourses in the 24 Parganás, and the length of each, as supplied to me by the Collector’s Returns (1870), or compiled from the Report of the Revenue Surveyor:—(1) The Circular Road Canal, from Bágh-Bázár to the old tollhouse on the
