Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/120

Rh 108 PUNJAB below Attock also receives the Harro from Hazdra. The Kurrain, rising in Afghanistan and flowing through the Bannu district, falls into the Indus near Isa Khil, and the Sohdn, from the lower hills of Kashmir, joins it .above Kdlabagh. The Bimbar, from the Kashmir Hills, below the Pir Panjdl Pass, runs into the Chindb near Wazirdbdd. The Deg, from the Jarnrnu Hills, joins the Rdvi near Gugaira. South of the Sutlej the Markanda, the Saras- wati, the Gaggar, and the Chitang, from the lower hills of Sirmur, which are violent torrents during the rainy season but nearly dry at other times, flow towards the Indus, but never reach it, being lost in the Sands of the Bikanir and Bahdwalpur desert. Irea The area of the Punjab proper, the triangular tract of country between the Indus and the Sutlej, is about 62,000 square miles ; the whole area of the British province is 106,632, and of the feudatory states 35,817, making a total of 142,449 square miles. This area is for the most J hysical part a great alluvial plain. The north-east side of the features province is a belt of hill-country, the outer margin of the Himdlayas, on which are the valuable hill-stations of Murree, Dalhousie, Dharmsala, Kassauli, Sabathii, Dagshai, and Simla. In the Delhi and Gurgdon districts is the north end of the Aravali range. A part of the extremity of these hills became well known at the time of the siege of Delhi in 1857 under the name of the " Ridge," which was held by the British troops. Between the Jhelum and the Indus is the hilly region known by the general name of the Salt Range, containing the inexhaustible stores of rock- salt which have been worked for many centuries. The salt is dug from enormous caverns entered by narrow tunnels. The salt-hills are continued west of the Indus, where the salt is dug from open quarries. A double range of low hills runs south-westward from the Indus near the mouth of the Kurram. The part near the south end called Sheikh Budln (Sheikh Shahdb-uddfn) is a useful sana- torium, though of no great height or great extent. The western boundary of the province is the fine range of the Sulimdn Mountains, dividing the Punjab from Afghan- istan. The British possessions do not extend beyond the base of the hills, which are occupied by very independent tribes. It is only within a short time past that any exact knowledge has been obtained of the interior of these hills, beyond the parts visited in the course of the numerous frontier expeditions for the punishment of inroads into British territory. A survey was made for the first time in 1883 of the fine mountain mass containing the snowy peak Takht-i- Sulimdn (Solomon's throne) and its sur- roundings. Mineral Besides the rock-salt the mineral products of the Punjab products. are not man y Limestone, good for building, is obtained at Chani6t on the Chindb and at a few other places. There are extensive alum-beds at Kdldbdgh on the Indus. A small quantity of coal is found in the Salt Range in disconnected beds, mostly at a considerable height above the plain, and not very accessible, the beds thinning out westwards from the Jhelum to the Indus. Petroleum is found in small quantities at a number of places in the Rdwal Pindi, Kohdt, and Bannii districts, being gathered from the surface of pools or collected in shallow pits. It is used for making gas for the station of Rdwal Pindi. In almost all parts of the Punjab there is "kankar," rough nodular limestone, commonly found in thick beds, a few feet below the surface of the ground, used for road metalling and burned for lime. Crops, As in other parts of India, there are commonly two har- vests in the year. The spring crops are wheat, barley, gram, various vegetables, oil -seeds, tobacco, and a little opium ; the autumn crops, rice, millets, maize, pulses, cotton, indigo, and sugar-cane. Tea is now extensively cultivated in the Kangra district. Flax has been pro- duced successfully, but the cultivation has not been ex- tended. Hops have been grown experimentally, for the Murree brewery, on neighbouring hills ; the cultivation in Kashmir has been more encouraging. Potatoes are grown extensively on cleared areas on the hills. The Punjab produces freely many of the Indian fruits, but none of special excellence except the peaches of Peshawar. Grapes are grown in many of the Himalayan valleys, where the rain is not excessive, also at Peshawar ; but they are in- ferior to those brought from Cabul. The forest area of the Punjab consists of 4694 square Forests miles reserved, under the management of the forest depart- ment, and 13,000 square miles under the district officers. The demarcation of protected and reserved forests is being extended. The wasteful destruction of trees is checked in the hill forests rented from native states by the British Government. The principal reserved forests are the deodar (Cedrus Deodara) and chil (Pinus longifolia) tracts in the hills, the plantations of shisham (Dalbergia Sissu) and sal (Shorea robusta) in the plains, and the fuel rakhs or pre- serves (Acacia, Prosopis, tc.). The average nett surplus of forest income for the ten years 1875-85 was Rs.161,800. The rainfall in the Punjab varies greatly in different Climat parts and from year to year. The maximum (126'55 inches in the year) is at Dharmsala, on the face of the high north wall of the Kangra valley ; the minimum (5'96) is in the Muzaffargarh district. In a country so open and so far from the sea there are extremes of heat and cold. A temperature of 128 Fahr. in the shade has been recorded, and a winter temperature of 25 at sunrise is not in- frequent. At Lahore, on the grass, the thermometer has been known to fall to 17. Of the whole area of British Punjab (106,632 square Cultivi miles) 36,755 square miles are cultivated and 64,263 un-tion. cultivated, the remaining 5614 being reckoned uncultivable. An area of 75,434 square miles (48,377,760 acres) is held by 33,020 village communities, formed of small proprietors having joint interests and joint responsibility for the land revenue, but cultivating each his own land. Among the Pathans of the trans-Indus districts the tribe and not the village community is in some cases the jointly responsible body. There are 3406 estates of larger proprietors, with a total area of 4,531,415 acres; and there are 10,216,872 acres of waste land, the property of the Government, of which less than one-half is capable of cultivation. The total area under wheat is seven millions of acres. There is an increasing export of wheat, gram, rice, and oil- seeds. Irrigation for large areas is from canals and from reser- irriga- voirs, and for smaller areas from wells. The canals are of tion - two kinds, those carrying a permanent stream throughout the year, and those which fill only on the periodical rising of the rivers, the latter commonly known as " inundation canals." There are only a few parts of the country pre- senting facilities for forming reservoirs, by closing the narrow outlets of small valleys and storing the accumulated rainfall. The old canals made by the Mohammedan rulers, of which the principal are Firoz's Canal from the Jumna and the Hasli Canal from the Rdvi, have been improved or reconstructed by the British Government. The principal new canals are the Sirhind, drawn from the Sutlej near Riipar, and irrigating parts of the native states of Patidla and Nabha as well as British territory ; the Bdrf Doab Canal from the Ravi ; the Swat Canal, drawn from the Swat river at Abazai ; and inundation canals in the districts of Fir6z- pur, Shahpur, Multan, and the De"rajat, from the Sutlej, the Jhelum, the Chinab, and the Indus. Water was admitted into the Sirhind Canal on 1st July 1882. Its branches are still under construction.