of the 12th of June 1897 caused serious damage to most of the
public buildings of the town. There is a railway station and a
government high school. The district comprises an area of 3946 sq. m. It
is traversed in every direction by a network of channels and water
courses. Along the banks of the Kulik river, the undulating ridges and
long lines of mango-trees give the landscape a beauty which is not
found elsewhere. Dinajpur forms part of the rich arable tract lying
between the Ganges and the southern slopes of the Himalayas. Although
essentially a fluvial district, it does not possess any river navigable
throughout the year by boats of 4 tons burden. Rice forms the staple
agricultural product. The climate of the district, although cooler than
that of Calcutta, is very unhealthy, and the people have a sickly
appearance. The worst part of the year is at the close of the rains in
September and October, during which months few of the natives escape
fever. The average maximum temperature is 92.3 deg. F., and the minimum
74.8 deg.. The average rainfall is 85.54 in. In 1901 the population was
1,567,080, showing an increase of 6% in the decade. The district is
partly traversed by the main line of the Eastern Bengal railway and by
two branch lines. Save between 1404 and 1442, when it was the seat of an
independent _raj_, founded by Raja Ganesh, a Hindu turned Mussulman,
Dinajpur has no separate history. Pillars and copper-plate inscriptions
have yielded numerous records of the Pal kings who ruled the country
from the 9th century onwards, and the district is famous for many other
antiquities, some of which are connected by legend with an immemorial
past (see _Reports, Arch. Survey of India_, xv.; _Epigraphia Indica_,
ii.).

DINAN, a town of north-western France, capital of an arrondissement in
the department of Cotes-du-Nord, 37 m. E. of St Brieuc on the Western
railway. Pop. (1906) 8588. Dinan is situated on a height on the left
bank of the Ranee (here canalized), some 17 m. above its mouth at St
Malo, with which it communicates by means of small steamers. It is
united to the village of Lanvallay on the right bank of the river by a
granite viaduct 130 ft. in height. The town is almost entirely encircled
by the ramparts of the middle ages, strengthened at intervals by towers
and defended on the south by a castle of the late 14th century, which
now serves as prison. Three old gateways are also preserved. Dinan has
two inte