BENGAL. The
them.
of
schools
secondary
321 instruction
were
1894
in
At the head of these stand the zild or District schools, established by Government at the head-quarters of each District. In them candidates are prepared for the matricunumber, with i4t,o 95
lation examination
scholars.
of the University of Calcutta.
The
University
speaking, an imperial rather than a provincial institution, as
is,
strictly
it
exercises functions over the whole of the Bengal Presidency
but
and the majority of its students belong to the Dower Provinces. Its function is to examine and confer degrees. The students for degrees must study at certain affiliated colleges, of which its
seat
in Calcutta,
is
Bengal— at
there are six in the interior of
Hugh’, Rajshahi, and Krishnagarh.
Patna,
Dacca, Cuttack,
In Calcutta, two Government and
four private colleges receive grants-in-aid from the State.
Newspapers.
— In
1881-82,
there
were
13
principal
newspapers
published in the vernacular, and about 38 of less importance, some of them merely broadsheets, or 5 1 in all ; but the number is constantly
The
changing. believed
to
circulation of the 13 principal vernacular papers is aggregate 7900 copies, that of the lesser papers about
Apart from advertising sheets, there were 16 11,700 copies. newspapers published in English within the Lieutenant-Governorship of
an aggregate circulation of 15,000 copies. Of this about two-thirds are assigned to the Calcutta daily papers. The Englishman, The Indian Daily Netvs, The Statesman, and The
Bengal
in 1881, with
circulation,
A
Indian Mirror.
weekly paper. The Hindu Patriot, conducted by
native gentlemen, but printed in English, also deserves special mention.
The
Calcutta Review
is
a high-class quarterly, to which
many
of the
leading Indian administrators, soldiers, and statesmen have contributed
during the past half-century. Climate.
—Although Bengal
tropical zone, cally tropical.
its
is,
for the
most
part, situated outside the
climate to the south of the Himalayas
The mean temperature
is
characteristi-
of the whole year varies between
80° F. in Orissa and 74° in parts of xssam
that of Calcutta being
an elevation of 6685 feet above sea level, the mean temperature is about 54°, and occasionally In the annual range of their falls as low as 24° in the winter. temperature, as well as in point of humidity and rainfall, the eastern and western portions of the Province are strongly contrasted. In Cachar, nearly 200 miles from the sea, the mean temperature of June 64'5° ; and the highest and lowest temis 82°, that of January peratures recorded in a period of 5 years, namely 99° and 43°, show a range of 56°. At Chittagong, on the sea-coast, the range does not exceed 49°. On the other hand, Patna, with a mean temperature of 87 '2° in June, and 6o'7° in January, registered in 1869 a maximum temperature of ii 6‘3 in May, and a minimum of 36 '9 in January, giving an absolute 79°.
VOL.
In the
II.
hill
station of Darjiling, with
X
