rivers, streams and creeks. Boats take the place of carts, the waterways serve as roads. The land is subject to annual inundation and silt fertilization. The slope of the country is away from and not towards the chief rivers, and the water in the minor channels flows from and not towards the main streams. In the rains a volume of turgid water spreads itself over the country; low-lying areas are inundated to a depth of 8 to 14 feet, the water covering
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Fig. 2. A Bengal Bil
everything but the river banks and the artificial mounds on which the houses are built. Strange as it may appear, this is the healthiest part of Bengal and the land is thickly populated, the density in some parts being over 1000 per square mile.
The level is only broken by a low tableland in the north-east, called the Madhupur Jungle, which, as its name implies, was formerly covered with forest. Its
