4 Vivaldi concertos arranged for organ.
Many of these arrangements contain much original matter, such as entirely new slow movements, large cadenzas, &c.
Concerto in A minor for 4 claviers and orchestra, from Vivaldi's B minor concerto for 4 violins. This, though the most faithful to its original, is the richest and most Bach-like of all these arrangements, and is well worth performing in public.
2 sonatas from the _Hortus Musicus_ of Reinken, arranged for clavier. (The ends of the slow movements are Bach.)
Finishing touches to cantatas by his uncle Johann Ludwig Bach. Also a very characteristic complete "Christe eleison" inserted in Kyrie of Johann Ludwig's.
VI.--DOUBTFUL AND SPURIOUS WORKS
Bach's autographs give the name of the composer on the outside sheet only.
He was constantly making copies of all that interested him; and where the outside sheet is lost, only the music itself can tell us whether it is his or not. The above-mentioned _Passion according to St Luke_ is the chief case in point. The little music-books he and his second wife wrote for their children are full of pieces in the most various styles, and the editors of the _Bach-Gesellschaft_ have not completely identified them, even Couperin's well-known "Les Bergeries" escaping their scrutiny. A sonata for two claviers by Bach's eldest son, Wilhelm Friedermann, was detected by the editors after its inclusion in _Jahrgang_ xliv. The second of the 3 sonatas for clavier and flute is extremely suggestive of Bach's sons, but Philipp Emanuel ascribes it to his father. However, he might easily have docketed it wrongly while arranging copies of his father's works. It has a twin brother (_B.-G._ ix. Anhang ii.) for which he has not vouched.
Four absurd church cantatas are printed for conscience' sake in _Jahrgang_ xliii. More important than these, because by no means too obviously ridiculous to deceive a careless listener, is the well-known 8-part motet, _Lob, Ehr' und Weisheit_ (blessing and glory and wisdom). A closer acquaintance shows that it is really very poor stuff; and it was finally crowned with absurdity by the discovery that its composer was a contemporary of Bach,--and that his name was Wagner.
The beautiful motet, _Ich lasse dich nicht_, has long been known to be by one of Bach's uncles (Johann Christoph).
EDITIONS
Almost the only works of Bach published during his lifetime were the instrumental collections, most of which he engraved himself. Of the church cantatas only one, _Gott ist mein Konig_ (written when he was nineteen, but a very great work), was published in his lifetime.
Of modern editions that of the _Bach-Gesellschaft_ is, of course, the only complete one. It is, inevitably, of very unequal merit. Its first editors could not realize their own ignorance of Bach's language; their immediate admiration of his larger choruses seemed to them proof of their competence to retain or dismiss details of ornamentation, figured bass, variants between score and parts, &c., without always stopping to see what light these might shed on questions of _tempo_ and style--especially in the arias and recitatives, which they regarded as archaic almost in direct proportion to the depth of thought really displayed in them. In the 9th _Jahrgang_ Wilhelm Rust introduced scholarly methods, with the happiest results. The _Wohltemperirtes Klavier (Jahrgang_ xiv.) was edited by Kroll, who also made his text accessible in the _Edition Peters_ (which till then had only Czerny's--an amazing result of corrupt tradition, still widely accepted).
Kroll's and Rust's volumes are far the best in the _B. G._ On Rust's death the standard deteriorated; his immediate successor seems more interested in reprinting in full an early version of a work of which Rust had given only the variants, than in digesting his own materials (_Jahrgang_ xxix.); and in his next volume (_Jahrgang_ xxx. p. 109) the bass and violin are a bar apart for a whole line. The last ten volumes, however, are again satisfactory, and in _Jahrgang_ xliv. the French and English suites are re-edited. Part of the B minor mass was also worked over again; and Kroll's text of the _Wohltemperirtes Klavier_ was supplemented by the evidence of the British Museum autograph. The Steingraber edition of the clavier works, edited by Dr Hans Bischoff, is incomparably the best, giving all the variants in footnotes and clearly distinguishing the extremely intelligent nuances and phrasing signs of the editor from the rare but significant indications of Bach himself. Nor does this wealth of scholarship interfere with the presentation of a straightforward, single text; though in addition there is every necessary explanation of the ornaments and kindred matters.
We have seen no other editions that distinguish Bach's text from the editor's taste--the disappointing publications of the _Neue Bachgesellschaft_[4] by no means excepted. We may remark that the older vocal scores of cantatas in the _Edition Peters_ are, though unfortunately but a selection, far better than the complete series issued by Breitkopf and Hartel in conformity with the _Bach Gesellschaft_, and therefore accepted as authoritative (see INSTRUMENTATION). The English vocal scores published by Novello are generally very good though covering but small ground. The Novello score of the Christmas oratorio contains a fine analytic preface by Sir George Macfarren.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--J. N. Forkel, _uber Bach's Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke_, translated (London, 1820); C. H. Bitter, _John Sebastian Bach_ (Berlin, 1865); Ernest David, _La Vie et les oeuvres de Bach_ (Paris, 1882); P.
Spitta, _Johann Sebastian Bach_ (Leipzig, 1873 and 1880); E. Heinrich, _Sebastian Bach's Leben_ (Berlin, 1885); A. Pirro, _L'Esthetique de Jean Sebastian Bach_ (Paris, 1907); and _L'Orgue de Jean Sebastian Bach_ (Paris, 1907); A. Schweitzer, _J. S. Bach: Le Musicien poete_. Spitta's biography superseded everything written before it and has not since been approached.
With corrections in the light of Rust's _B. G._ prefaces it contains everything worth knowing about Bach, except the music itself.
(D. F. T.)
[1] Spitta points out that this cannot mean singing in the choir at a service, but making music in church privately.
[2] The same surgeon operated unsuccessfully on both composers.
[3] See the wild conjectures of the editor of the Four Short Masses as to the "displacing" of structure in the _kyrie_ of the G minor Mass (_B.-G., Jahr. viii._ preface, with Rust's answer in the preface to _Jahr. xxiii._).
[4] The object of the _Neue Bachgesellschaft_ is to render the completed results of the first _Bachgesellschaft_ generally accessible by holding frequent Bach festivals and issuing cheap and practical editions. The activities of this society, together with the new movement to restore Bach's vocal music to its place in the Lutheran Church, cannot fail to have a salutary effect on the future of music.
BACH, KARL PHILIPP EMANUEL (1714-1788), German musician and composer, the third son of Johann Sebastian Bach, was born at Weimar on the 14th of March 1714. When he was ten years old he entered the Thomasschule at Leipzig, of which in 1723 his father had become cantor, and continued his education as a student of jurisprudence at the universities of Leipzig (1731) and of Frankfort on the Oder (1735). In 1738 he took his degree, but at once abandoned all prospects of a legal career and determined to devote himself to music. A few months later he obtained an appointment in the service of the crown prince of Prussia, on whose accession in 1740 he became a member of the royal household. He was by this time one of the first clavier-players in Europe, and his compositions, which date from 1731, included about thirty sonatas and concerted pieces for his favourite instrument. His reputation was established by the two sets of sonatas which he dedicated respectively to Frederick the Great (1742) and to the grand duke of Wurttemberg (1744); in 1746 he was promoted to the post of _Kammermusikus_, and for twenty-two years shared with Karl Heinrich, Graun, Johann Joachim, Quantz and Johann Gottlieb Naumann the continued favour of the king. During his residence at Berlin he wrote a fine setting of the _Magnificat_ (1749), in which he shows more traces than usual of his father's influence, an Easter cantata (1756), several symphonies and concerted works, at least three volumes of songs,--_Geistliche Oden und Lieder_, to words by Gellert (1758), _Oden mit Melodien_ (1762) and _Sing-Oden_ (1766), and a few secular cantatas and other _pieces d'occasion_. But his main work was concentrated on the clavier, for which he composed, at this time, nearly two hundred sonatas and other solos, including the set _mit veranderten Reprisen_ (1760-1768) and a few of those _fur Kenner und Liebhaber_. Meanwhile he placed himself in the forefront of European critics by his _Versuch uber die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen_ (first part 1753, second, with the first reprinted, 1762), a systematic and masterly treatise which by 1780 had reached its third edition, and which laid the foundation for the methods of Clementi and Cramer. In 1768 Bach succeeded Georg Philipp Telemann as _Kapellmeister_ at Hamburg, and in consequence of his new office began to turn his attention more towards church music. Next year he produced his oratorio _Die Israeliten in der Wuste_, a composition remarkable not only for its great beauty but for the resemblance of its plan to that of Mendelssohn's _Elijah_, and between 1769 and 1788 added over twenty settings of the Passion, a second oratorio _Der Auferstehung [v.03 p.0131] und Himmelfahrt Jesu_ (1777), and some seventy cantatas, litanies, motets and other liturgical pieces. At the same time his genius for instrumental composition was further stimulated by the career of Haydn, to whom he sent a letter of high appreciation, and the climax of his art was reached in the six volumes of sonatas _fur Kenner und Liebhaber_, to which he devoted the best work of his last ten years. He died at Hamburg on the 14th of December 1788.
Through the latter half of the 18th century the reputation of K. P. E. Bach stood very high. Mozart said of him, "He is the father, we are the children"; the best part of Haydn's training was derived from a study of his work; Beethoven expressed for his genius the most cordial admiration and regard. This position he owes mainly to his clavier sonatas, which mark an important epoch in the history of musical form. Lucid in style, delicate and tender in expression, they are even more notable for the freedom and variety of their structural design; they break away altogether from the exact formal antithesis which, with the composers of the Italian school, had hardened into a convention, and substitute the wider and more flexible outline which the great Viennese masters showed to be capable of almost infinite development. The content of his work, though full of invention, lies within a somewhat narrow emotional range, but it is not less sincere in thought than polished and felicitous in phrase. Again he was probably the first composer of eminence who made free use of harmonic colour for its own sake, apart from the movement of contrapuntal parts, and in this way also he takes rank among the most important pioneers of the school of Vienna. His name has now fallen into undue neglect, but no student of music can afford to disregard his _Sonaten fur Kenner und Liebhaber_, his oratorio _Die Israeliten in der Wuste_, and the two concertos (in G major and D major) which have been republished by Dr Hugo Riemann.
A list of his voluminous compositions may be found in Eitner's _Quellen Lexikon_, and a critical account of them is given in Bitter's _C. P. E. und W. F. Bach und deren Bruder_ (2 vols., Berlin, 1868), a mine of valuable though ill-arranged information.
Four more of Johann Sebastian Bach's sons grew to manhood and became musicians. The eldest of them, WILHELM FRIEDERMANN BACH (1710-1784) was by common repute the most gifted; a famous organist, a famous improvisor and a complete master of counterpoint. But, unlike the rest of the family, he was a man of idle and dissolute habits, whose career was little more than a series of wasted opportunities. Educated at Leipzig, he was appointed in 1733 organist of the Sophienkirche at Dresden, and in 1747 became musical director of the Liebfrauenkirche at Halle. The latter office he was compelled to resign in 1764, and thenceforward he led a wandering life until, on the 1st of July 1784, he died in great poverty at Berlin. His compositions, very few of which were printed, include many church cantatas and instrumental works, of which the most notable are the fugues, polonaises and fantasias for clavier, and an interesting sestet for strings, clarinet and horns. Several of his manuscripts are preserved in the Royal library at Berlin; and a complete list of his works, so far as they are known, may be found in Eitner's _Quellen Lexikon_.
The fourth son, JOHANN GOTTFRIED BERNHARD BACH (1715-1739) was, like his elder brothers, born at Weimar and educated at Leipzig. From 1735 to 1738 he held successively the organistships at Muhlhausen and Sangerhausen; in 1738 he threw up his appointment and went to study law at Jena; in 1739 he died, aged 24.
JOHANN CHRISTOPH FRIEDRICH BACH (1732-1795), the ninth son, was born at Leipzig, studied at the Thomasschule and the university, and in 1750 was appointed _Kapellmeister_ at Buckeburg. He was an industrious composer, especially of church-music and opera, whose work reflects no discredit on the family name.
JOHANN CHRISTIAN BACH (1735-1782), the eleventh son, was born at Leipzig, and on the death of his father in 1750 became the pupil of his brother Emanuel at Berlin. In 1754 he went to Italy where he studied under Padre Martini, and from 1760 to 1762 held the post of organist at Milan cathedral, for which he wrote two Masses, a _Requiem_, a _Te Deum_ and other works. Having also gained some reputation as a composer of opera, he was in 1762 invited to London and there spent the rest of his life. For twenty years he was the most popular musician in England, his dramatic works, produced at the King's theatre, were received with great cordiality, he was appointed music-master to the queen, and his concerts, given in partnership with Abel at the Hanover Square rooms, soon became the most fashionable of public entertainments. He is of some historical interest as the first composer who preferred the pianoforte to the older keyed-instruments; but his works, though elegant and pleasing, were ephemeral in character and have been deservedly forgotten.
A full account of J. C. Bach's career is given in the fourth volume of Burney's _History of Music_, and a catalogue of his compositions in an article by Max Schwarz, published in the _Sammelbande_ of the _Internationale Musik-Gesellschaft_, Jhrg. ii. p. 401.
(W. H. HA.)
BACHARACH, YAIR (1639-1702), German rabbi, was the author of _[H.]awwoth Ya[=i]r_ (a collection of _Responsa_) and other works. Bacharach was a man of wide culture, and holds an honourable place among the pioneers of the Jewish Renaissance which was inaugurated towards the end of the 18th century.
BACHARACH, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine Province, romantically situated on the left bank of the Rhine, 30 m. above Coblenz on the railway to Mainz. Pop. 2000. There is an interesting church, a basilica, dating from the beginning of the 13th century. There are also ruins of a Gothic church of the 13th and 15th centuries. The ruined castle of Stahleck, crowning the heights above the town, is celebrated in history as the scene of the marriage between Henry, eldest son of Henry the Lion (shortly before the latter's death in 1195) and Agnes of Hohenstaufen, which effected a temporary reconciliation between the houses of Welf and Hohenstaufen. Other ruined castles are those of Furstenberg and Stahlberg. All three belonged to the counts palatine. The wines of Bacharach were once held in the greatest esteem, and it is still one of the chief markets of the Rhenish wine trade.
BACHAUMONT, LOUIS PETIT DE (1690-1771), French litterateur, was of noble family and was brought up at the court of Versailles. He passed his whole life in Paris as the centre of the _salon_ of Madame Doublet de Persan (1677-1771), where criticism of art and literature took the form of malicious gossip. A sort of register of news was kept in a journal of the _salon_, which dealt largely in scandals and contained accounts of books suppressed by the censor. Bachaumont's name is commonly connected with the first volumes of this register, which was published anonymously under the title _Memoires secrets pour servir a l'histoire de la Republique des Lettres_, but his exact share in the authorship is a matter of controversy.
It was continued by Pidansat de Mairobert (1707-1779) and others, until it reached 36 volumes (1774-1779). It is of some value as a historical source, especially for prohibited literature. Extracts were published by P. Lacroix in one volume, 1859. An incomplete edition (4 vols.) was undertaken in 1830 by Ravenal.
See, in addition to the memoirs of the time, especially the _Correspondance litteraire_ of Grimm, Diderot, d'Alembert and others (new ed., Paris, 1878, 17 vols.); Ch. Aubertin, _L'Esprit public au XVIII^e siecle_ (Paris, 1872).
BACHE, ALEXANDER DALLAS (1806-1867), American physicist, great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, was born at Philadelphia on the 19th of July 1806. After graduating at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1825, he acted as assistant professor there for some time, and as a lieutenant in the corps of engineers he was engaged for a year or two in the erection of coast fortifications. He occupied the post of professor of natural philosophy and chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania in 1828-1841 and in 1842-1843. For the trustees of what in 1848 was to become Girard College, but had not yet been opened, he spent the years 1836-1838 in Europe, examining European systems of education, and on his return published a very valuable report. In 1843, on the death of Professor F. R.
Hassler (1770-1843), he was appointed [v.03 p.0132] superintendent of the United States coast survey. He succeeded in impressing Congress with a sense of the great value of this work, and by means of the liberal aid it granted, he carried out a singularly comprehensive plan with great ability and most satisfactory results. By a skilful division of labour, and by the erection of numerous observing stations, the mapping out of the whole coast proceeded simultaneously under the eye of the general director, and in addition a vast mass of magnetic and meteorological observations was collected. He died at Newport, Rhode Island, on the 17th of February 1867.
BACHE, FRANCIS EDWARD (1833-1858), English musical composer, was born in Birmingham on the 14th of September 1833. The pupil of Alfred Mellon for violin and Sterndale Bennett for composition, he afterwards went to Leipzig in 1853 and studied with Hauptmann and Plaidy. Considering the early age at which he died, his compositions are fairly numerous, and the best, a trio for piano and strings, is still held in high esteem. Two operettas, a piano concerto and a number of published pianoforte pieces and songs do little more than show how great was his promise. He died at Birmingham of consumption on the 24th of August 1858. His younger brother, WALTER BACHE (1842-1888), was born in Birmingham on the 19th of June 1842, and followed him to the Leipzig Conservatorium, where he became an excellent pianist.
From 1862 to 1865 he studied with Liszt in Rome, and for many years devoted himself to the task of winning popularity for his master's works in England. At his annual concerts in London nearly all Liszt's larger works were heard for the first time in England, and on the occasion of Liszt's last visit to England in 1886, he was entertained by Bache at a memorable reception at the Grosvenor Gallery. Walter Bache was professor of the pianoforte at the Royal Academy of Music for some years before his death, and the foundation of the Liszt scholarship at that institution was mainly due to his efforts. He died in London on the 26th of March 1888.
An interesting memoir of the two brothers, by Miss Constance Bache, appeared in 1901 under the title _Brother Musicians_.
BACHELOR (from Med. Lat. _baccalarius_, with its late and rare variant _baccalaris_--cf. Ital. _baccalare_--through O. Fr. _bacheler_), in the most general sense of the word, a young man. The word, however, as it possesses several widely distinct applications, has passed through many meanings, and its ultimate origin is still involved in a certain amount of obscurity. The derivation from Welsh _bach_, little, is mentioned as "possible" by Skeat (_Etymological Dictionary_), but is "definitely discarded" by the _New English Dictionary_, and that given here is suggested as probable. The word _baccalarius_ was applied to the tenant of a _baccalaria_ (from _baccalia_, a herd of cows, _bacca_ being a Low Latin variant of _vacca_), which was presumably at first a grazing farm and was practically the same as a _vaselleria_, _i.e._ the fief of a sub-vassal.
Just, however, as the character and the size of the _baccalaria_ varied in different ages, so the word _baccalarius_ changed its significance; thus in the 8th century it was applied to the _rustici_, whether men or women (_baccalariae_), who worked for the tenant of a _mansus_. Throughout all its meanings the word has retained the idea of subordination suggested in this origin. Thus it came to be applied to various categories of persons as follows.--(1) Ecclesiastics of an inferior grade, _e.g._ young monks or even recently appointed canons (Severtius, _de episcopis Lugdunensibus_, p.
377, in du Cange). (2) Those belonging to the lowest stage of knighthood.
Knights bachelors were either poor vassals who could not afford to take the field under their own banner, or knights too young to support the responsibility and dignity of knights bannerets (see KNIGHTHOOD AND CHIVALRY). (3) Those holding the preliminary degree of a university, enabling them to proceed to that of master (_magister_) which alone entitled them to teach. In this sense the word _baccalarius_ or _baccalaureus_ first appears at the university of Paris in the 13th century in the system of degrees established under the auspices of Pope Gregory IX., as applied to scholars still _in statu pupillari_. Thus there were two classes of _baccalarii_: the _baccalarii cursores_, _i.e._ theological candidates passed for admission to the divinity course, and the _baccalarii dispositi_, who, having completed this course, were entitled to proceed to the higher degrees. In modern universities the significance of the degree of bachelor, in relation to the others, varies; _e.g._ at Oxford and Cambridge the bachelor can proceed to his mastership by simply retaining his name on the books and paying certain fees; at other universities a further examination is still necessary. But in no case is the bachelor a full member of the university. The degree of bachelor (of arts, &c.) is borne by women also. (4) The younger or inferior members of a trade gild or city company, otherwise known as "yeomen" (now obsolete). (5) Unmarried men, since these presumably have their fortunes yet to make and are not full citizens. The word bachelor, now confined to men in this connotation, was formerly sometimes used of women also.
Bachelors, in the sense of unmarried men, have in many countries been subjected to penal laws. At Sparta, citizens who remained unmarried after a certain age suffered various penalties. They were not allowed to witness the gymnastic exercises of the maidens; and during winter they were compelled to march naked round the market-place, singing a song composed against themselves and expressing the justice of their punishment. The usual respect of the young to the old was not paid to bachelors (Plut.
_Lyc._ 15). At Athens there was no definite legislation on this matter; but certain minor laws are evidently dictated by a spirit akin to the Spartan doctrine (see Schomann, _Gr. Alterth._ i. 548). At Rome, though there appear traces of some earlier legislation in the matter, the first clearly known law is that called the Lex Julia, passed about 18 B.C. It does not appear to have ever come into full operation; and in A.D. 9 it was incorporated with the Lex Papia et Poppaea, the two laws being frequently cited as one, Lex Julia et Papia Poppaea. This law, while restricting marriages between the several classes of the people, laid heavy penalties on unmarried persons, gave certain privileges to those citizens who had several children, and finally imposed lighter penalties on married persons who were childless. Isolated instances of such penalties occur during the middle ages, _e.g._ by a charter of liberties granted by Matilda I., countess of Nevers, to Auxerre in 1223, an annual tax of five _solidi_ is imposed on any man _qui non habet uxorem et est bachelarius_. In Britain there has been no direct legislation bearing on bachelors; but, occasionally, taxes have been made to bear more heavily on them than on others. Instances of this are the act (6 and 7 Will. III.) passed in 1695; the tax on servants, 1785; and the income tax, 1798.
BACHIAN (Dutch _Batjan_), one of the Molucca Islands, in the residency of Ternate, Dutch East Indies, in the Molucca Sea, in 013'-055' S. and 12722'-128 E. With its subordinate islands, Mandioli, Tawali and others, it lies west of the southern peninsula of the island of Halmahera or Jilolo, and has an area of 914 sq. m. It is of irregular form, consisting of two distinct mountainous parts, united by a low isthmus, which a slight subsidence would submerge. The island is in part of volcanic formation, and the existence of hot springs points to volcanic activity. There are, however, especially in the southern portion, ancient and non-volcanic rocks. The highest elevation occurs at the south of the island, the mountain of Labua reaching 6950 ft. Coal and other minerals have been discovered. A large portion of the island is richly wooded, and sago, cocoa-nuts and cloves (which are indigenous) are abundantly produced.
Bachian is remarkable as the most eastern point on the globe inhabited by any of the _Quadrumana_, a black ape occurring here as in Celebes. The island is very rich in birds and insects. The interior of the island is uninhabited and none of the dwellers on the coast are indigenous. They consist of the Sirani or Christian descendants of the Portuguese, of Malays, with a Papuan element, Galela men from the north of Halmahera, immigrants from Celebes, with some Chinese and Arabs. The total number of inhabitants is about 13,000. The chief village, called Amasing by the inhabitants, but also called Bachian, is situated on the west side of the isthmus. Bachian is the most important island of a group formerly governed by a sultan, but since 1889 by a committee of chiefs under the control of a Dutch _controleur_. From 1882 onwards a Batjan company attempted to exploit the island, but [v.03 p.0133] unsuccessfully, owing to a deficient knowledge of the soil and its capabilities and a lack of labourers.
BACK-BOND, or BACK-LETTER, in Scots law, a deed qualifying the terms of another deed, or declaratory of the purposes for which another deed has been granted. Thus an _ex facie_ absolute disposition, qualified by a back-bond expressing the limited nature of the right actually held by the person to whom the disposition is made, would constitute what in England is termed a deed of trust.
BACK-CHOIR, RETRO-CHOIR, a space behind the high altar in the choir of a church, in which there is, or was, a small altar standing back to back with the other.
BACKERGUNJE, or BAKARGANJ, a district of British India in the Dacca division of Eastern Bengal and Assam. It forms part of the joint delta of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, and its area is 4542 sq. m. The general aspect of the district is that of a flat even country, dotted with clusters of bamboos and betel-nut trees, and intersected by a perfect network of dark-coloured and sluggish streams. There is not a hill or hillock in the whole district, but it derives a certain picturesque beauty from its wide expanses of cultivation, and the greenness and freshness of the vegetation.
This is especially conspicuous in the rains, but at no time of the year does the district present a dried or burnt-up appearance. The villages, which are always walled round by groves of bamboos and betel-nut palms, have often a very striking appearance; and Backergunje has many beauties of detail which strike a traveller in passing through the country. The level of the country is low, forming as it does a part of the great Gangetic delta; and the rivers, streams and water-courses are so numerous that it is very difficult to travel except by boat at any season of the year. Every natural hollow is full of water, around the margin of which long grasses, reeds and other aquatic plants grow in the greatest profusion, often making it difficult to say where the land ends and the water begins. Towards the north-west the country is very marshy and nothing is to be seen for miles but tracts of unreclaimed swamps and rice lands, with a few huts scattered here and there and raised on mounds of earth. In the south of the district, along the coast of the Bay of Bengal, lie the forest tracts of the Sundarbans, the habitation of tigers, leopards and other wild beasts.
The principal rivers of the district are the Meghna, the Arial Khan and the Haringhata or Baleswar, with their numerous offshoots. The Meghna represents the accumulated waters of the Brahmaputra and Ganges. It flows along the eastern boundary of the district in a southerly direction for about 100 m. till it debouches into the Bay of Bengal. During the latter part of its course this noble river expands into a large estuary containing many islands, the principal of which is that of Dakshin Shahbazpur. The islands on the sea-front are exposed to devastation by cyclonic storm-waves. The Arial Khan, a branch of the Ganges, enters the district from the north, and flows generally in a south-easterly direction till it falls into the estuary of the Meghna. The main channel of the Arial Khan is about 1700 yds. in width in the dry season, and from 2000 to 3000 yds. in the rains. It receives a number of tributaries, sends off several offshoots, and is navigable throughout the year by native cargo boats of the largest size. The Haringhata, Baleswar, Madhumati and Garai are various local names for the same river in different parts of its course and represent another great offshoot of the Ganges. It enters Backergunje near the north-west corner of the district, whence it forms its western boundary, and runs south, but with great windings in its upper reaches, till it crosses the Sundarbans, and finally falls into the Bay of Bengal by a large and deep estuary, capable of receiving ships of considerable burden. In the whole of its course through the district the river is navigable by native boats of large tonnage, and by large sea-going ships as high up as Morrellganj, in the neighbouring district of Jessore. Among its many tributaries in Backergunje the most important is the Kacha, itself a considerable stream and navigable by large boats all the year round, which flows in a southerly direction for 20 m., when it falls into the Baleswar.
Other rivers of minor importance are the Barisal, Bishkhali, Nihalganj, Khairabad, Ghagar, Kumar, &c. All the rivers in the district are subject to tidal action from the Meghna on the north, and from the Bay of Bengal on the south, and nearly all of them are navigable at high tide by country boats of all sizes. The rise of the tide is very considerable in the estuary of the Meghna, and many of the creeks and water-courses in the island of Dakshin Shahbazpur, which are almost dry at ebb tide, contain 18 or 19 ft. of water at the flood. A very strong "bore" or tidal wave runs up the estuary of the Meghna at spring tides, and a singular sound like thunder, known as the "Barisal guns," is often heard far out at sea about the time it is coming in. There are numerous marshes in the district, of great size and depth, and abounding in fish.
The Mussulmans of Backergunje are among the worst of their creed, steeped in ignorance and prejudice, easily excited to violence and murder, very litigious and grossly immoral. On account of an epidemic of murders disarmament had to be enforced in the district. The Faraizis or Puritan sect of Mahommedans are exceedingly numerous in the district. The Buddhist population consists of Maghs or the people of Arakan, who first settled in Backergunje about 1800, and have made themselves very useful in the clearing of the Sundarbans. A gipsy-like tribe called the Bebajias are rather numerous in this district. They live principally in boats, travelling from place to place, profess Mahommedanism, and gain their subsistence by wood-cutting in the Sundarbans, fishing, fortune-telling and trading in trinkets. In 1901 the population was 2,291,752, showing an increase of 6% in the decade.