In military Hindustan is regarded as composed of the three presider.eies of Bengal, -Madras. and llonibay. When the army of B. is spoken of. we must therefore understand by B. a much larger area than that included in the above table. In 1871, the number of European soldiers in the buoy of B. was 35.122; native, about 05,000. Other features of B. as a presidency will fall naturally uuder more general heads. B. proper alone, the ancient soubah, or the modern province, now' claims more special notice.
B. proper, then, is bounded on the n. by Nepali'. Sikim, and Rhotan: on the e. by Assam; ou the s. by the bay of Bengal; on the s w. by Orissa and Gondwana; ar d.ou the w. by 13:thar. Taking its widest range, it measures about 350 01. from w. to 0., by an average of about 300 front s. to n., and covers an area of sq.m., embracing about 30 administrative districts. In 1871, the pop. was 36,769.735. Thus Bengal proper is somewhat smaller in extent and denser in population than Great Britain. Next to Calcutta, the cities of note are Moorshatlabad, Dacca, Burdwan, Purnenh, lloogly. '3Iidnapore, Bancorall. 13erbampore, etc. In B. proper, within the district of Hoogly, there stands also the French settlement of Cliandernagore, containing some what less than 4 sq.m., with a pop. of about 33,000. The IIoogly district, moreover, contained. at one time, twn other dependencies of foreign countries, the Dutch Chinsura, and the Danish Serampore, ceded to England in 1824 and 1845. B. proper, as a whole. may he regarded as ahnost a dead level. It is only on the s.w. frontier that it shows any hill-country, for towards the n. it is said nowhere to reach even a single spur of the Himalaya. The principal rivers are the Ganges and the Brahiraputra, tho former intersecting the country diagonally from 11.W. to s.c , and the latter crossing* its more easterly portion in a direction to the w. of south. During their lower courses. these main channels are so interlaced together as to form perhaps the most singular net-work of waters in the world; and their first point of confluence is said to lie JafTergituce—tho head also of tide-water—in Int. 23° 52' n., and long. 89'45' e., at a distance of 160 in from the sea. But the thousand-isled delta commences 120 m. furthur up the Ganges, where the highest offset, the Blingirathi, breaks off to the right, afterwards to join a similar offset, the Jellinglice, in forming the lloogly of Calcutta. Besides these two grand arteries. the province is watered by many less considerable rivers, chiefly- northerly trib utaries of the Ganges; so that even in the dryest season there is scarcely any spot 20 in. distant from a navigable stream. During the rainy months, almost every water-course in the more level regions inundates the adjacent plains; while, down in the delta, the separate floods sometimes mingle themselves into a breadth of 100 miles. To say nothing • of temporarr inconvenience and loss, these visitations often inflict permanent damage such as is wholly irreparable. The soil, in most parts of the province. is so decidedly alluvial. that hardly a rock or a stone meets the ascending voyager within a distance of 400 m. from the sca—a soil offering but a feeble harrier to torrents which, besides gat her as they rise, velocity and momentum, are liable to change their direction with each increase of depth and width. A twofold evil is the result. The Ganges and the 11rali maputra, resuming, tis it were, their gifts of a. former age, cut for themselves new passages, to the injury of private individuals, while their old ones become so many seetliiiig swamps, to the prejudice of the public health. To a partial extent, such calam ities have been averted by einhankments. In these circumstances, the intercourse is ordinarily carried on by water: the Bcngalee, in fact, may be viewed as almost amphib ions; and on the Lower Ganges alone, there are said to be—unless in so far as steam may have reduced the number—about 30,000 professional boatmen. Speaking generally, the communications by land are merely beaten paths. The only exception of note—and that certainly :t noble one—is the Grand Trunk road, which traverses the province from Calcutta upwards on its way to Delhi, Lahore, and the Indus. .Much of the country is
covered by thick woods and impenetrable jungles, which abound in wild animals, such Hi the jackal, the leopard, the tiger. and the elephant. The last is often tallied for domestic use, the more common beasts of burden being the camel and th horse, the latter of an altogether inferior variety. Lying, as B. proper does, between tire 21st parallel' and the 27th. its and productions, so far as the latitude alone is con cerned. may be expected to be tolerably uniform over the entire province. But other causes intervene to affect the result. Thus, the nearer any place is to the sea. the heavier are the rains, and the broader is the overflow; the. difference of moisture, however, being, in the remoter localities, often made up by irrigation. Moreover, in an inverse proportion to the latitude, the alternate monsoons of the bay- of Bengal (see next article). with their respective influences on the thermometer and barometer, are more sensibly felt in the maritime tracts. Lastly. to these special causes must be added a cause of more general character—the difference of elevation. Hence, wheat and barley, for instance. grow only on the higher ground:3, while rice cannot thrive unless within the range of the inundations. yielding, too. an endless diversity of varieties, according to Lie infinitely fluctuating conditions tinder which it may be cultivated. Besides grains and vegetables in great variety and abundance, B. proper gives to commerce opium, indigo, silk, sugar. tobacco, coffee, and cotton. See CALCUTTA. Cotton manufactures, once extensively' carried on, in the district of Dacca, have latterly given way to British com petition. 'rile article of salt, to come up under another head in connection with revenue, claims separate notice. Most of what is consumed in B. proper is made in deserts on the coast, alternately covered and abandoned by every tide, where the singularly power ful evaporation—said to be sometinies' an inch a day on the depth of the adjacent bay— impairs the health of the laborer in proportion as it facilitates his labor. Of all these co:namilities. indigo (q.v.) is, in one important view, the most valuable. as being more 1 kely than any other to attract English agriculturists to Inditi. From the earliest limes Cie dye appears to have been cultivated on the Lower Ganges. which for ages enjoyed, in this respect. the monopoly of the European trade. But when once the cultivation of the plant was introduced into America, it gradually engrossed the market—the greater care in the preparation making up for a natural inferiority in the article itself; and it was only when British capital and skill undertook the manufacture, that 13. began to resume her original supremacy acy in this branch of arietilture. The annual rain-fall at Calcutta varies from 53 in. to 8:1. diminishing gradually towards the interior. At Calcutta also, ni the year 1871, the mean temperature for May was 84'12'; for July it was 83° 12'; and for Dec., 09' The prevailing winds were. from Jan. to May of the same year, n.w to s.: from June to Sept.. southerly: from Oct. to Dec., n.w Iron and coal are understood to abound, though] by no means continuously. in a tract as large as England, running to the w. from Rajnlnlnal—a tract, howeven not wholly situated in Bengal proper. In 1757, a single battle, gained against odds of twenty to one. transferred 11. fro the Mhgul's viceroy to the English East India company—the Mogul's own grant of I A_G., ratifying the decision of Plassy, B. has 10 colleges belonging entirely to the government, and 5 private colleges receiving which were attended in 1873 Iry 1163 students. There are 2 unaided colleges. In 1871-72, the government and aided schools numbered 4383, with 7292 teachers. and 163,280 pupils. Besides these there were 10.907 ascertained schools not receiving aid from the state, with 169.917 pupils.
i There is also a vast number of petty hedge schools, of which no statistics exist.