( so )
it does not possess the advantage of a cooling sea breeze to counteract the effect
of the excessive heat of the summer ; on the other hand, the piercing cold wind
from the north-westerly direction, without any counteracting hot breeze from
the direction of the equator, makes its winter much more severe than in the
districts of Lower Bengal. The average depth of the water in wells is about
24 feet during the hot seasons and 15 feet during autumn and winter.
During the rains the water level is 5 or 6 feet below the surface, and often within
hand's reach. The wells, as regards construction, are temporary (kutcha), con-
sequently in two or three years they generally fill up by earth falling in from
around during the rains, and becoming dry, require to be dug up again in
the hot weather. Tanks are not numerous, but the few that are seen are
very large, and said to be dug by Hindu Governors of Gour (the ancient name
of the district). They are mostly found in or about the ruins of that ancient
city. Regarding the general mode of life, it is stated by the Civil Surgeon :—
" The habit among up-country people of taking one heavy meal a day and
starving for the remaining hours is, I think, pernicious to their health. The
custom among the Hindus generally of fasting on festival days and eating raw
grain soaked in water, and green fruits afterwards, is also a fruitful source of
bowel-complaints, especially diarrhœa and dysentery, and under epidemic
influences it becomes a predisposing cause of cholera. Pilgrims at melas, and
travellers on the way, generally eat parched rice soaked in water or curded milk
and treacle, with which a large quantity of particles of dust floating in the
air are usually mixed."
Regarding the epidemic cholera of 1868 it is stated :—" The epidemic
cholera which broke out in Maldah in October 1867, * * * did not entirely
cease until June last. * * * The inundation of the Ganges during the rains
of 1867 laid the whole district of Maldah under water from July to September
1867. The water commenced to dry up in October, when both cholera and
fever broke out simultaneously in different parts of the district. * * * More
males than females,—more of the labouring classes working in the field,
eating worse kinds of food than persons in affluent circumstances and work-
ing within doors, eating good and easily digestible foods, more of lower than
of higher castes or professions, and more adults than children suffer from
cholera. The extent of sickness was great, as very few villages escaped from its
ravages. Mortality was also very great, though no satistical record is avail-
able on this head. * * * When cholera visits a station where it did not appear
at least for some years before it does not leave the place without visiting
it successively, at least for three years and then again disappears for some years.
The disease is very rare during the rains when the country is under water ;
and it is remarkable that it invariably breaks out when the waters begin to
subside."* * *
Rangpur.—The sub-soil moisture is found at a depth on an aver-
age of 10 feet. * * * Tanks are very numerous. * * * Wells as a rule
are surrounded by bamboo fences. *** The inhabitants of Rangpur drink
water and use the same for culinary purposes from any and every source,
from rivers, tanks, wells, jhils, swamps, and marshes, and even from any
little hole containing a few bucketsful of collected rain-water, the
drainage of the country. * * * The climate of Rangpur is clooler than
most places in Lower Bengal. From November to June it is extremely
healthy, from which time fever (the common disease of the districts) begins
being most rife about the end of the rains and of October. * * * The district
of Rangpur, the Civil Surgeon considers " exceedingly malarious." Regarding
the disposal of the dead, he writes :—"The poorer class of Hindus seldom burn
their dead, but throw the bodies into the nearest ditch or pool of water,
often by the side of public highways or in the immediate outskirts of villages,
while the Mahomedan population scratch shallow graves two or three feet
deep and bury their dead frequently at their very door-steps in the midst
of villages. There is no regular place set apart for burial purposes." There
was no epidemic sickness in the Rangpur district during the years 1867 and
1868. The Civil Surgeon writes :— * * * "I am given to understand that
epidemics are unknown in the district of Rangpur."
Julpaigori.—Only came into existence on the 1st January 1869. It is
composed of the whole of the old Western Duars and the sub-division of