BARISAL  , a

town of British India, headquarters of Backergunje district in Eastern Bengal and Assam, situated on a river of the same name . Pop . (1901) 18,978 . It is an important centre of river trade, on the steamer route through the Sundarbans from Calcutta to the Brahmaputra . It contains a first grade college and several schools . There are a public librany, established by subscription in 1858; and a students' union, for helping the sick and poor and promoting the intellectual and physical improvement of boys . Barisal has given its name to a curious physical phenomenon, known as the " Barisal guns," the cause of which has not been satisfactorily explained . These are noises, like the report of cannon, frequently heard in the channels of the delta of the Brahmaputra, at the rising of the tide .