Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/433

 SUL 425 Exports and imports.-Exports and imports are almost identical with the articles just enumerated; they become one or the other according to the cora parative prices prevailing in this district and adjacent ones ; cattle form an exception; the demand for the local breed is altogether limited to the district itself, Manufactures...- Manufactures are even of less consequence than trade. Textile industry of a very humble kind is common among the Kori and Juláha castes. It flourishes principally at Jáis,* where various sorts of cloth, plain and brocaded, are manufactured ; a peculiar kind of muslin (tanzeb) is the most famous. In this the weavers have a curious art of in-weaving, at the time of manufacture any design that may be suggested to them, verses and sentences are most common, but these are varied to suit every creed and taste. Some are passages from the Koran, others Hindu Ishloks, others a verse or two from the most instructive of Dr. Watt's moral songs and hymns. Bandhua enjoys a limited renown for its metal vessels, and other rough sorts of metal-work. Sugar and indigo are manufactured in a very small scale in pargana Chánda. Under native rule the manufac- ture of salt and saltpetre was largely carried on, but it bas now been discontinued. Communications. The main channels of traffic are the river Gumti and the various roads by which the district is intersected, but beasts of burden are extensively employed, and these find their way from one place to another, little checked by the absence of roads. The Gumti will serve to connect the whole of the northern and eastern portion of the district with the station of the Oudh and Rohilkhand Rail- way at Jaunpur. It is scarcely, if at all, used for passenger traffic, the neighbouring road being more advantageous for the purpose, the difference in length between the two being much the same as the sum of the length of several arcs and the sum of the lengths of their chords. For freight, how- ever, where speed is a secondary object, it is much used, bcing navigable hereabouts for country boats of 800 or 1,000 maunds burdon. It should thus become a valuable feeder of the railway, unless all that is at present taken to the Jaunpur market is required for the consumption of that vicinity. Other stations of the same railway lie at an easy distance to the north, for communication with which there are many roads easily traversable by wheeled carriage. The Gumti intervenes, but is passable in many places. At Amghát, a few miles north-east of Jagdispur, it is spanned by a lofty pile bridge consisting of fifteen bays. The platform is 16 feet in width, and is supported by strut and straining beam trusses ; it stands at á height of twenty-four feet above the summer level of the water. At Sul- tanpur there is a similar bridge, of somewhat larger dimensions. Fer- ries are numerous. Roads. The principal road by which the district is connected with the outer world is the imperial high road from Fyzabad to Allahabad. It enters the district due north of the civil station, which it crosses, and run- ning nearly due south passes into the Partabgarh district about twelve miles further on It is metalled and bridged throughout that distance. 54
 * Since trausferred to Rae Barcli.