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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 6, p. 165.

BA CKER G UL GE6 i65 of Moradabad city. Population (1901), 7,452. According to tradition, it was founded in the time of Prithwi Raj. The town contains several mosques and a temple. It is administered under Act XX of I856, with an income of about Rs. 1,300. A primary school has 78 pupils. Backergunge (Bdkarganj, 'Mart of Agha Bakar').-Southern- most District of the Dacca Division, Eastern Bengal and Assam, lying between 2I° 49' and 23° 5' N. and 89° 52' and 9I° 2' E., with an area of 4,542 square miles. It is bounded on the north by Faridpur; on the east by the Meghna and Shahbazpur rivers, which separate it from Noakhali; on the south by the Bay of Bengal; and on the west by the Baleswar river and its estuary the Haringhata, which divide it from Khulna. Backergunge is a typical part of the alluvial delta formed by the three great river systems of Eastern Bengal. The District consists partly of mainland and partly of islands in the estuary of the Meghna, the largest being DAKHIN SHAHBXZPUR, and aspects. forms an unbroken plain intersected by a network of sluggish and muddy tidal rivers and channels, with a slight decline from the east towards the west and north-west. Along the coast-line of the Bay lie the SUNDARBANS, a group of half-reclaimed islands separated by tidal creeks, which cover an area in this District of 897 square miles. The MEGHNA estuary, here some 8 miles in breadth, sweeps past the east of the District, and is divided by the Dakhin Shahbazpur island into an eastern branch called the Shahbazpur, and a western known as the Tetulia river. The Arial Khan is a branch of the Ganges; it crosses the north-east corner of the District, and joins the Meghna through the Mashkata and Kalinga channels. The river system consists of offshoots from the Meghna estuary and the tributaries and distributaries of the Arial Khan and Baleswar (as the MADHUMATI is called in its lower reaches), which ramify into channels intersecting the District in every direction. A perplexing multiplicity of names extends even to the smaller watercourses, which are often known by different names to villagers living on opposite banks, while the Meghna estuary itself is known in different parts of its course as the Satbaria, the Ilsa, the Tetulia, and the Shahbazpur. Most of the rivers and water-channels are navigable throughout the year and are subject to tidal action, which however is powerless during the freshes of the rainy season to arrest the seaward flow of the immense volume of rain-water pouring down the big rivers. Alluvion and diluvion are constantly taking place, especially towards the east, where the District is washed by the Meghna. On the north and east of the island of Dakhin Shahbazpur, the land is being rapidly cut away, while on its western shore a corresponding formation is taking place and large alluvial accretions are being thrown up in the estuary, the names of which indicate their recent origin. There is a very