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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 11, p. 179.

DAR J1,'FT,ING TO N~N 179 retreat for the officials of Lower Bengal and their families. It is now the summer head: quarters of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, of the Conservator of Forests, Bengal, and also for a few months of the Commissioner of the Bhagalpur Division ; a Superintending Engineer, Executive Engineer, and Deputy-Conservator of Forests are also stationed here. It occupies a long narrow ridge descending abruptly to the bed of the Great Rangit river. The highest and lowest points within the limits of the town are about 7,8oo feet and 6,ooo feet respectively above the sea. In 1872, before the construction of the railway, the population numbered only 3,157 ; but during the next nine years it increased by more than loo per cent., and it doubled again between the years 1881 and 1891. Since 1891 its growth has been less rapid, as most of the available building sites have been already taken up and built upon. Moreover, the disastrous landslips of 1899 caused a temporary check to its development. These were caused by a violent cyclone with heavy rainfall, which visited the District in September, 1899. On the 23rd a heavy thunderstorm broke in Dar- jeeling about 1.30 p.m., and for three hours the rain descended in torrents. A lull ensued till about 8 o'clock, and then the cyclone burst in all its fury. The storm raged the whole of the night of the 23rd, and all the next day and night, without the slightest intermission till about 3.30 in the early morning of the 25th. No less than 5-3 inches of rain fell during the 24 hours ending at 8 o'clock on the morning of the 24th, and 19•4 inches before 4 a.m. of the following clay. Most of the landslips occurred on the east of the town, where the hill-side is very precipitous. These overwhelmed many houses, and roads and pathways were broken away in many places by the constant stream of mud, water, and stones down the hill-sides. Seventy- two lives were lost. The station also suffered much damage in the great earthquake of 1897, when many houses were injured and a few were entirely wrecked ; three lives were lost by the fall of boulders from the hill-sides. The local trade of Darjeeling is practically confined to supplying the wants of European inhabitants and of the tea plantations. A con- siderable trade is carried on by the hillmen with residents and visitors in China cups, turquoise, coral and amber ornaments, jade and agate cups and beads, prayer wheels, bells, amulets and other curiosities illustrative of Buddhist monastic life, as well as kukris, Bhotia and Lepcha knives, Nepalese brass-work, &c. The Darjeeling shop- keepers deal mostly in European piece-goods, stores, glass, hardware and crockery. The municipality was constituted in 185o, and at first coincided with the tract of 138 square miles ceded by the Sikkim Raja ; it is now restricted to the station itself, with the two cantonments of Darjeeling N 2