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 BANNU.

89

and one well near its summit. It is very grassy, and can boast number of small trees and shrubs. The climate resembles that of Shekh Budin, but is not so dry, and is perhaps a trifle cooler. Sakesar is the summer head-quarters of the Assistant Commissioner in charge of the Mianwali Sub-division. Three main passes by fair roads enter Forty the District from Kohat, Mianwali, and Dera Ismail Khan. tanks,

of a

other passes lead into the District by rough tracks from independent territory.

Navigation on the Indus is carried on all the year round, but is somewhat dangerous during the rainy season. The river is not fordable at any time of the year, and is not bridged within the limits of the District,

although

The

ferries

are

maintained

at

five

principal crossing

most commonly in use are flat-bottomed, with high prow and stern, and of from 4^ to 8i tons burthen. The main channel is continually shifting in the wide bed of the river, extending to a maximum width of 13 miles, sometimes being on the Isakhel side, and sometimes on the Mianwdlf or eastern side. About forty years ago, the great body of the Indus flowed on the Isakhel side, but sufficiently far from its high western bank to leave a strip of rich alluvial soil, varying from half a mile to two miles in width. By degrees the river encroached on this strip until, shortly after the annexation of the Punjab, the fertile zone was completely submerged. About 1856, a change of course gradually set in the direction of an old channel on the Mianwali side, 8 miles east, which it reached in 1864. From 1864 to 1873, Indus kept hugging its left bank closer and closer, engulfing village after village in its bed, and even undermining its old high bank, and eroding the villages which had crowned it for over a places.

boats

Thus, 9 villages, including part of the Mianwali, have been partly or wholly destroyed.

century.

river has relaxed its pressure

on the

left

Civil

Station

of

1873, the bank, and has taken a central

Since

whose lands had been hitherto left untouched, and were consequently the richest and best in its bed. By 1882, some 25,000 acres of cultivated land had here suffered diluvion. At the same time, some of the channels on the Isakhel side are again becoming wider, and their volume of water seems to be yearly

set against villages

increasing.

The

trees

most commonly found are the shis/iam (Dalbergia

mulberry, willow, wild olive, and tamarisk shrubs in the

thal.

sissoo),

The

area

under the Forest Department consists of about 3616 acres of shisham, which in 1870-71 contained 55,156 trees. There are no lakes or swamps of any importance. Several jhils, which formerly existed, have been partially reclaimed since the annexation of the Province. Two marshes produce thatching reeds.

Of

minerals, rock-salt occurs at

many

spots in the Salt

Range

proper.