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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 12, p. 269.

GOALPRA DISTRICT 269 standing under a canopy. The other buildings include the cathedral, the viceregal palace, the high court, the custom-house, the municipal chamber, the military hospital, the jail, the accountant-general's office, and the post office. For trade, &c., see GOA SETTLEMENT. Goalpanda-Subdivision and village in Faridpur District, Eastern Bengal and Assam. See GOALUNDO. Goalpara District.-- District of Eastern Bengal and Assam, forming the entrance to the upper valley of the Brahmaputra. It lies on both sides of the great river, extending from 25° 28′ to 26° 54′ N. and from 89° 42′ to 91° 6′ E., with an area of 3,961 square miles. It is bounded on the north by the mountains of Bhutan; on the south by the Garo Hills; on the east by Kamrup ; and on the west by the Districts of Rangpur and Jalpaiguri and the State of Cooch Behar. The per- manently settled portion of the District (as distinguished from the Eastern Duars, which lie under the Bhutan hills) occupies the valley of the Brahmaputra, at the corner where the river leaves Assam proper and turns due south to enter the wide plain of Bengal. It is very irregularly shaped, extending for 65 miles along the northern bank of the Brahmaputra, and for 120 miles along its southern bank. The level land on the south bank Physical aspects. forms but a narrow strip, in some parts not more than 8 miles across, being shut in by the ridges of the Garo Hills. On the north, the country is much broken up by low ranges of, hills running north and south, and exhibits a pleasing diversity of forest, lake, and marsh, interspersed with rice-fields and villages surrounded by groves of fruit trees and bamboos. The largest sheets of water are the Tamranga and Dhalni oils, two picturesque lakes lying at the foot of the Bhairab hills in the east of the District, and the Dhir and Diple oils a little to the west of that range. The Eastern I)uars consist of a flat strip of country lying beneath the Bhutan mountains. The only elevated tract in these Duars is the Bhumeswar hill, which rises abruptly out of the plains to the height of nearly 400 feet ; but to the north they are shut in by the ranges of the Bhutan hills. The total area of the Duars is 1,570 square miles, nearly the whole being covered with sal forest and high grass jungle, among which are scattered the patches of cultivation that surround the villages of the Mechs, who inhabit this tract. The principal rivers on the north bank of the Brahmaputra are the MANAS, with its tributary the AI, the CHAMPAMATI, the SARALBHANGA or Gaurang, the Gangia, and the SANKOSIi. All these rise in the Bhutan hills and are navigable by country boats for a portion of their course throughout the year. Several other minor streams become navigable during the rainy season. A peculiar tract of pebbles, gravel, and sand, resembling the BHABAR tract -in the Western Himalayas,