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,
