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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 21, p. 161.

RA,JSHAHI DISTRICT 161 carried off not by rivers, but through a chain of marshes and swamps. The largest of these is the CHALAN Bit., into which the overflow from all the others sooner or later finds its way, to be passed on eventually, through an outlet at its south-eastern corner, into the Brahmaputra. The greater part of the District is covered with recent alluvium, con- sisting of sandy clay and sand along the course of the rivers, and elsewhere of fine silt consolidating into clay. The Barind, however, belongs to an older alluvial formation; it is composed of massive argillaceous beds of a rather pale reddish-brown hue, often weathering yellowish, in which are disseminated kankar and pisolitic ferruginous concretions. Where the ground is not occupied by the usual crops of North Bengal, it is covered with an abundant natural vegetation. Old river- beds, ponds and marshes, and streams with a sluggish current have a copious vegetation of hallisneria and other plants. Land subject to inundation has usually a covering of Tamarix and reedy grasses, and where the ground is marshy Rosa involucrata is plentiful. Few trees are found on these inundated lands ; the most plentiful and largest is the hidjal (Barringtonia acutangula). There are no forests; and even on the higher ground the trees are few and stunted, and the surface is covered by grasses, such as Imperata arundinacea and Andropogon aciculatus. Among trees the most conspicuous is the red cotton-tree or semal (Bombax malabaricum) ; the sissit (Dalbeigia Sissoo) and the mango occur as planted or sometimes self-sown species. The villages are generally buried in thickets of semi-spontaneous and more or less useful trees. Tigers are occasionally found in the Barind and in the country south of the Chalan Bil, but they are nowhere common, Leopards have greatly diminished in numbers in recent years. Fish abound in all the rivers, and the annual value of the Padma fisheries alone has been estimated at z lakhs. Mean temperature increases from 63° in January to 85° in April, May, and June. It is about 83 during the monsoon months, falling to 7z° in November and 65° in December. The highest average maxi- mum is 96° in April, and the lowest average minimum 51° in January. The annual rainfall averages 57 inches, of which 6.2 fall in May, io•r in June, 11•7 in July, 10•4 in August, and 10•4 in September. The earthquake of 1897 was very severely felt, especially in the east of the District. Only 15 deaths were reported, but great damage was caused to property, and the total loss to Government alone was estimated at i" lakhs. Earth fissures occurred in many places, the roads were badly cracked, and the crops damaged by surface sub- sidences. Rajshahi must originally have formed part of the old kingdom of