Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057352).pdf/83

 PAR twenty miles south-east of the town of Jaunpur. The Sai runs chiofly between high banks at a considerable depth below the level of the adjoining country. It seems probable that this depth was greater for- merly, as the quantity of soil carried into the river is very great, and must be gradually raising the bed to a level with the surrounding coun. try. The regular working of the aquual rains in the alluvial lands of the Gangetic valley, to bring the surface irregularities of the soil to an uniform level, must have struck every one who has been for any length of time conversant with that part of the country. This river is navi. gable in the rains, as is also the Gumti all the year round, The Gumti forms the boundary of the Patti pargana for a distance of about five miles only, quite in the porth-east corner of the district, where it abuts on the borders of the adjacent district of Sultanpur. To the south-west again, in an entirely opposite direction, flows the Ganges, separating the lands of parganas Mánikpur and Bihár from the neighbouring North-Western Provinces territory, for a distance of some forty-four "miles . It leaves the district at a village named Jabánabad, in the Bihár pargana, about eighteen miles above Allahabad. The two rivulets—called the Chop and the Duár-empty their contents into the Ganges. Watershed.-- Regarding the watershed of the district, Mr. King writes:- " Nearly the whole of the watershed of the district lies towards the river Sai, which is thus in the rains a considerable stream. It receives the waters of several tributary rivulets, among which the Gogra, Lon, Sakarni, Bakláhi from the south, and the Udepur and Mangapur nálas, the Chamrowa and Puraiya, the nálas at Diwánganj and Parhat, and the Píli nadi from the north, are the most considerable. The district is, in fact, the basin of the Sai river. It is not till the immediate neigh- bourhood of the Ganges is reached that the watershed lies towards the south. Lakes. There are many natural lakes, mostly small and more usually known as jhíls or tanks; but some are of considerable arca, and in the height of the rains measure some miles in circumference, and cover large areas with shallow water. The lakcs of Behti, Nanera, and Rohenia are the most considerable of these. The surface accumulations of water are pretty evenly distributed over the district, but are seldom found near the banks of the Ganges or the Sai. The drainage afforded by these rivers naturally causes a scouring of the tep soil, and this, carried on through cen- turies, has now removed much of the loamy deposit which formerly covered with a uniform coat the surface of the Gangetic valley. The sand, which underlies the loarn at no great depth, is unable to retain the water which is carried off through the soil into nálas and ravines whence it finds its way into the stream. Where the clay or loam exists, the water is retained, and, as said above, this is pretty fairly distributed over the dis- trict in wide and shallow lakes. To attempt to deepen these considerably would be to defeat the purpose they now serve, for if the excavation were continued to the sand that lies below, the whole of the water would pass >