Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/449

 B/A'ANEI?.

439

At Xokha, midway between Bikaner and Nagaur, 400 feet deep, and only 3I- feet in diameter at the mouth water drawn from this well is quite hot. During the hot season the scarcity of water often causes great suffering. Travellers are sometimes found dead on the road for want of it. Bikaner suffers from extremes of heat and cold. During the hot season, the heat is exceedingly great heavy sandstorms are of frequent occurrence, and the sun is so powerful that even the natives of the country fear to travel in the middle of the day. In winter, the cold is generally very severe, trees and vegetation being injured by the frost. Guinea-worm is very prevalent. Lime is abundant in many parts of the State, especially in the neighbourhood of the city of Bikaner and the town of Shujangarh. Red sandstone is quarried at Khari, 30 miles north-east, and is also found in smaller quantities west of Bikaner. The Khari quarry supplies the building materials used for ornamenting all works of importance in the city. Fuller’s earth, quarried in large quantities about 30 miles to the south-west, is used as soap, and for dyeing cloth. Copper was formerly extracted from a hill near Bidasir, in the Shujangarh District, 70 miles east of the city but the mine has not been worked for many excavations {sar). is

a well







years.

The

and moth (Phaseolus Water-melons and kakrts (a coarse kind of melon) are also grown. Bikaner abounds in the best cattle-grasses indeed, the whole country may be said to be a pasture ground. The domestic animals are finer and more serviceable than those of any other part of India; the horses are strong and wiry; the cattle and buffaloes are equally famous. The State was formerly renowned for its riding camels, but they have deteriorated of late years. The principal manufactures are woollen fabrics, blankets, and sweetmeats ; the exstaple crops are bajrd (Holcus spicatus)

aconitifolius).



ports, in addition to these, are wool, soda, fuller’s earth, grain, leathern

water-bags,

and ivory

bracelets

ornamented with gold, which are

in

demand throughout Rajput^na. The population of the State was estimated by Major Powlett in The Census of 1881 returned the 1874 as not less than 300,000.

great

total

at

females,

mile

of

whom 293,650 were males and 215,371 107,569 houses; or 2278 persons per square area, and 473 persons per occupied house. According 509,021,

of

occupying

were, Hindus, 436,190; Muhammadans, 50,874; The number of villages is said 21,943; and Christians, 14. to be 1739, but villages in Bikaner are so frequently abandoned and

to

religion there

Jains,

repopulated, that the

number

existing

feared, never be precisely ascertained. Jats,

who

are

almost

all

at

any given time can,

The most numerous

agriculturists;

it

is

castes are

Baniyas or traders number