1 Its plains,
2 The face of the
3 country presents every
4 variety.
5 Wastes,
6 Their peculiar
7 aspect,
8 Salt range,
9 12 HISTORY OF THE PANJAB.
10 being the fifth of the Panjéb Dodbs, and comprising the British districts
11 of Hoshiarptir and Jalandar and the native state of Kapurthala. Of these
12 Dodbs, the Bari carries off the palm, comprising the central Manjha, or home
13 of the Sikh nation, and the great cities of Léhore, Amritsar and Multdn.
14 The Panjab, considered as a whole, presents the appearance of a gently
15 sloping plain, leading from the high mountains on the north to the sandy
16 deserts on the south. The slope is regular and gradual, so that even the
17 upper parts are of moderate elevation. ‘Thus the great cities of Léhore and
18 Amritsar are each 900 feet above the level of the sea; the surface slopes
19 regularly to the south-west, and we find Mithankot at an clevation of
20 220 feet. The unbroken flatness of the surface causes frequent and exten-
21 sive changes in the courses of the great rivers. Thus one of the nalds in
22 the low, sandy country between the Sutlej and Ludhidud was the bed of the
23 river fifty years ago. The Sutlej is specially apt to change its course, but
24 the tendency to desert their channels is a characteristic of most of the
25 rivers of the Panjab. Bands of sand traverse the country in a direction
26 north and south, indicating the old beds of the rivers. The Ravi, which
27 40 years ago flowed under the walls of the city of Léhore, flows now in
28 a channel three miles to the north. The Sutlej, which formerly had its
29 course close to the city of Ludhidna, now flows seven miles north of it; the
30 Chindb, which flowed by Ram Nagar, is now separated from it by four miles,
31 aud the Jhelum has undergone similar changes.
32 No country in the East presents the same variety of features as docs the
33 land of the five rivers. From tracts of the most luxuriant cultivation and
34 extensive green plains the traveller passes to the most arid deserts and bushy
35 jungle. Traversing the northern tracts, he would regard the Panjab as the
36 garden of India; but, as he approaches the south, the barren sandy pla-
37 teau to the south-west, the wastes of Hissdr to the south-east, and the Bar of
38 the Chaj Dob present a strange scene to his view. He secs interminable
39 wastes, the wildest prairies overgrown with grass and scrub. The centres of
40 the Doabs, with their inexhaustible pasturage, sustain noble breeds of cattle,
41 buffaloes, sheep, and goats. The camels which carry the main traffic
42 between the Panjéb and Afghanistén, are reared upon these boundless
43 grazing lands. They yield an abundant supply of fodder for the horses
44 of the country, and are the sole source of wood fuel for the railway, the
45 chief towns and cities and the great British cantonments.
46 Here and there in the wilderness a hamlet is found, inhabited by a
47 semi-barbarous people, subsisting on camel’s milk. But in these wild tracts,
48 far from the crowded resorts of men, are the remains of ancient cities and
49 the ruins of villages, temples, tanks, wells and water-courses, indicating that
50 the region was once not inferior to the most favoured districts. ;
51 The great salt range of the Panjab, springing from the roo$ of the
52 Sufed Koh, extends eastward to the Indus, which it crosses at Kélabégh, and,
53 continuing its eastward course across the Sindh Sdgar Dosb, terminates
54 somewhat abruptly on the right bank of the river Jhelum. It is of no great
55 elevation, there being few places where it rises more than 2,000 feet above
56 the level of the sea. The range contains inexhaustible veins of rock-salt, de-
57 posits of chloride of sodium, formed of grass wacke, limestone, sandstone, gyp-
58 ae and red tenacious clay. To the south stretches the sandy champaign,
59 ae sara north is a plateau, abrupt, rocky aud precipitous, On the north-
60 agi et close to the town of Mandi, the lower ranges of the Hima-
61 ae eee inexhaustible beds of fossil salt of a reddish colour, very compact
62 eavy. There are also to be found in these ranges extensi trata of lime-
63 stone, standston 7 ae Se ee eee
64 ° gypsum, argillaceous slate and_occasionally veins of quartz.
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