Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/151

 KHE 143 ing from Pacliperi Ghát to Matera, a distance of ten miles. Annually the lower lands are swept for hundreds of square miles by this destructive river. Srinagar, Dhaurahra, Firozabad, and part of Bhär are invaded (see the account of those parganas and of the Chauka). It needs embankment. The Kauriála does little harm, its current being slower and its banks higher, The Gumti and Ul have done some damage, but it appears probable that much of this is due to recent road-making and insufficient waterway left in the bridges. The Katuna, the Mohán, the Sukheta, and the Suheli do no injury. Kheri possesses enormous river power, which is not utiliz- ed in any way, except to a very trifling extent for irrigation. The Kauriála has a minimum dry-weather discharge of 13,700 cubic feet per second, the Sárda of 7,300 cubic feet, the Gumti of 300 cubic feet, and the Suheli of about 150 cubic feet. Forests.--The whole north of the district is covered with huge forests, which occupy the greater part of Khairigarh and Kukra Mailáni, and the western extremities of Palia and Bhúr. These woods are continued along the banks of the rivers, penetrating far into the districts of Hardoi and Sitapur. For instance, commencing at the junction of the Kathna with the Gumti in the Sitapur district, the traveller might follow the bank of the river towards the north through continuous forest for many days' march, and striking direct north through Kukra Mailáni would reach the Naipál mountains, a distance of 120 miles, without ever seeing cultivated land. Tlie eastern bank of the Gumti also exhibits patches of forest almost to Muhamdi, and the woods are unbroken along the Ul till within eight miles of Lakhimpur. The Kauriála and the Clauka flow generally between banks covered with jháo coppices scattered at intervals in vast prairies of lofty grass. The forests proper of Kheri cover 650 square miles, exclusive of the bushy prairies above referred to. Of this area 303 square miles (278 in Khairigarh and 25 in Bhúr) werc in 1861 taken possession of by Govern- ment and preserved as forest lands, to provide materials for public build- ings and arsenals. The remainder, 347 square miles, was divided into lots of 5,000 acres or less and given to men of supposed enterprisc, who were to hold it rent-free for twenty years, and then pay only half the Government revenue payable for similar land. The only conditions were that they had to cut down a quarter of the forest, and bring 3 quarter of the land under cultivation within twelve years. Some grants were sold outright at an upset price of Rs. 2-8-0 per acre. Hardly any of these forest lessees either brought the forest under cultivation under the first set of conditions, or paid up the due instalments of their purchase-money under the second, and consequently grants of forest covering more than 120 square miles were resumed by the State, whose forests now cover 423 square miles, while private individuals hold in all 227, little of which has been brought under the plough. Of the whole forest land about two-thirds are covered with sál (Shorea robusta). In the Khairigarh forest the trees are of large size, there being more than ten to each acre, with a girth of over four and a half feet. The forests north of the Mohán consist mainly of sál and asín (Termina- lia tormentosa). The banks of the Sulieli are fringed with glittering