2 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



At a rough calculation, the first of the four, that is, Bengal 

 proper, may be about equal in area and population to the other 

 three, the aggregates being about 152,000 square miles, sup- 

 porting 66,000,000 of inhabitants. Not only does the country 

 present physical features in great variety, from snow-clad 

 mountains down to ant hills, and from some of the mightiest 

 rivers in the world to frog-stocked puddles, but the races which 

 inhabit it are many in number, and dissimilar in origin, habits, 

 and language. The stalwart Rajpoot of Shahabad in no way 

 resembles his co-religionist, the Ooriya ; the Santhal and the 

 Mahomedan of Eastern Bengal have no thing in common; and, 

 lastly, the ordinary Bengalee of Calcutta and its neighbour- 

 hood is as little like the Moonda and the Cheeroo as a Portu- 

 guese is like a Hungarian. So slight is the sympathy between 

 the mountaineers and the plains-men, that the keen relish of 

 a gourmand over a dish of " natives " does not exceed that of 

 a Naga, or Kookee, operating on a fat Bengalee trader with 

 his " das," or long knife. 



As the country is divided into four distinct provinces, so 

 it presents four distinct physical aspects. Firstly, vast level 

 plains of alluvial lands, highly cultivated, thickly peopled, and 

 almost entirely denuded of forests and jungles, as the central 

 districts of Bengal and the greater portion of Behar. Secondly, 

 elevated laterite tracts, covered to a considerable extent with 

 " sal" woods, as Chota Nagpoor, and some western districts 

 of Bengal. Thirdly, mountains and hills richly clothed with 

 forests, as the Darjeeling and Chittagong districts, and parts of 

 Orissa and the tributary mehals ; and, lastly, wide savannahs 

 and wildernesses of thickly-growing woods, as the "Terai" 

 and the " Soonderbuns." 



Bengal proper may be briefly described as lying between 

 the Himalayas on the north and the sea 011 the south, bounded 

 east and west by the Tipperah and Chittagong hills and the 

 highlands of Santhalia and Chota Nagpoor respectively. It is 

 a low flat alluvial, highly cultivated, and abounding in rivers 

 and marshes, supporting a dense and rapidly-increasing popu- 

 lation, of which no more need be remarked than that it does 



