Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/448

 BIKANER.

438

speaking, the villages are far apart, and though grass and jungle bushes

here and there abound, the aspect of the country

is

dreary and desolate

Elphinstone has said that within a short distance of the capital, the country is as waste as the wildest parts of Arabia. Forest does not exist. South of the capital there is a considerable tract covered with brushwood, in which the horses and cattle of the in the extreme.

chief are allowed to range, and near plantations of the

Ber

some

of the towns there are small

During and

(Zizy'phus jujuba).

just after the

however, wears a very different aspect, becoming a vast green pasture-land covered with the richest and most succulent rains, the countr)^

grasses.

The Bikaner country

contains no rivers or streams.

nald sometimes flows from

season, a

In the rainy

Shaikhawati over the eastern

soon lost in the sands. The Ghagar, called also the Satra Punjab, once flowed through the northern part of the present Bikaner territory ; but it is now dry, and wells are dug in its bed, where it is said the only sweet water in that region is to be found. During the rains, however, it sometimes contains water for a few miles of its course ; and the Tibi pargana is greatly benefited by border, but

or

it.

Hakra

is

in the

Some

water from the Western

State west of Hissar.

drainage

of the

Two

little

Jumna Canal

occasionally enters the

fresh- water -lakelets,

rocky country south-west of

formed by the lie on the

Bikaner,

The first, Gajner, about 20 miles from the capital, has clear water and wooded margin ; its palace and garden and fields are a pleasing contrast to the surrounding wilds ; route from Bikaner to Jaisalmir.

the other, 12 miles farther on the route,

is

bathing ghats having been built on the banks. the Shujangarh District

Bikaner; shallow, is

it

salt

The

lake of

Chapar

in

the principal source of the salt supply of

about 6 miles long by

is

2

miles wide, but

it

is

very

up before the hot weather begins. There The salt lake about 40 miles north-east of Bikaner.

and almost

another

is

a sacred spot, numerous

dries

produced from these lakes

is

of inferior quality, ralued at about half

Sambhar salt. It is only consumed by the poor, or used for curing skins and other antiseptic purposes. Water in Bikaner is found, notwithstanding the slight apparent difference in the level of the country, at very varying depths, and is Thus, the city wells are more than 300 feet of very unequal quality. deep, but the water of most is of excellent quality, while 10 or 12 miles to the north and north-west water is found within 20 feet of the the price of

surface



inch too

but frequently there far,

is

—

an not above 3 feet of sweet water, is tapped, thus spoil-

and the stratum of pernicious water

ing the well for

all

practical purposes.

The people

of the country

depend a good deal upon rain-water, the drainage of the neighbourhood being collected either in covered pits, called hands, or in simple