SAGAR, a town of the Central Provinces of 13ritish India, in lat. 23° 49' 50" N., and long. 78° 48' 45" E., with a population in 1872 of 45,655 souls. Sager stands 1940 feet above sea level, on the N.W. borders of a lake nearly a mile broad, and said to be an ancient Banjara work. A Bundela raja built a small fort on the site of the present city in A.D. 1660, and founded a village, called Parkota, now a quarter of the modern town. Sager town is the headquarter station of a district of the samo name, lying between lat. 23° 4' and 24° 27' N., and long. 78° 6' and 79° 12' E. Area, 4005 square miles ; population in 1872, 527,725 persons. Sager district occupies, with that of Damoh, the high Vindliyan table-land which stretches out on the north-west corner of the Central Provinces. The cultivators are the Kurmi and the Lodhi. The Gond, 24,217, com prise about 4.63 per cent. of the population, and the predatory criminal Kliangar and Kohri are non-Aryan races. The Kobri dwell on the borders, near Native States, to which they resort if pressed by the police.
In the beginning of the year A.D. 1818, by a treaty concluded between the l'esliwa Baji Rao and the 13ritish Govermnent, Sager, with the greater part of the present Sager district Demob, Jubbulpnr, and 31andLa, were. made over to the Bri t ish.— bap. Gaz.
SAGAlt or Saugor Iskuul is at the mouth of the Hoogly river, Bengal, in lat. 21° 35' no. to 21° 56' 30" N., and long. 88° 4' 30" to 88° 14' E. Its lighthouse in lat. 21° 38' N., and 88° l' E. long. It is 21 miles iu length and 6 in breadth, and is low, but as it lies upon the extreme edge of the deltaic basin, it is consequently higher than the centro of the delta. The remains of tanks, temples, and roads are still to be seen, showing that it WM once more densely populated than it is now, and native history informs us that Saugor Island has been inhabited for centuries. During the opemtion of clearing Saugor Island in 1822 to 1833, and later is hen clearing away the jungle for tho electric telegraph in 1855-56, remains of buildings, tanks, roads, and other signs of man's former presence were brought to light. Again, upon the eastern portions of the Sunderbuns, where the country has been cleared of forest, mud forts are found in good numbers. 3fug, Malay, Arab, Portu guese, and other pirates, about A.D. 1581, depopu lated the country so far to the westward between the river Horingliatta and the Itabnabad channel. The delta is intersected from north to south by many broad rivers, and by endless creeks running one into the other, filled for the most part with salt water when near the sea. This tract of land
occupies approximately 28,080 square miles of superficial area, or double the area. of the delta of the Nile ; measuring from west to east, or from the right bank of the Hoogly river opposite to the Sanger tripod on the south-west point of Saugor Island, to Chittagong, it is 270 miles in width, presenting to the Bay of Bengal a series of low, flat mud banks covered at high water and dry at low water ; a few miles from low water mark commence mangrove swamps ; a little farther inland trees appear, and lastly cul tivation, the nearest cultivation in the central portion of the delta being 47 miles from the sea. hi the sea front of the delta there ive nine principal openings having a head-stream, that is, having water flowing direct from the Ganges, or from the 31egna or Bralimaputra. They are-1. the Ganges; 2. the 3Iegna or Bralunaputra ; 3. Horinghatta ; 4. Pussur ; 5. 3Iurjatta or Kagga ; 6. Barapunga ; 7. Mollinchew ; 8. Roymungul or Juboona ; 9. Iloogly. Besides these large rivers, there are numerous opening,s having no lie.ad stream, being mere salt-water tidal estuaries ; these openings or headless rivers are the deepest, as no silt or deposit is poured into them from the higher lands. The tides iu the lloogly run with a rapidity in the springs of 7 miles an hour between Saugor and Calcutta. At Calcutta it is high water about 2h. 301n. on full and change of the moon. The bore is of not unfrequent occur rence in this branch of the river.
A fair is held on the island in the beenning of January, to u hich pilgrims from all parts of India, but especially from Bengal, resort to wash away their sins in the waters of the holy etre:mi. A writer in the Calcutta Review states that, in 1688, two years before the foundation of Calcutta, it contained a population of 200,000 persous, who in one night were swept away by an inundation. A cyclone of 1864 caused enormous destruc tion and loss of life. The storm-wave, 11 feet above the level of the land, swept over the island with resistless force ; 1488 persons sur vived out of a population of 5625. The island. , when surveyed in 1812, was found to contain 143,265 acres of dry land. The island is now covered with dense jungle, and infested by tigers and other wild beasts. Many attempts have been made to cultivate it, but with small success.