Gazetteer Of The Jhang District

· 1883 · Public domain (published pre-1930) · archive.org ↗

1[Punjab Gazetteer,

2Chapter I, A.

3Descriptive.

4The lower CheuAb

5Talley.

6The Jhelam valley.

7The RAvi valley.

810 CHAP. I. — THE DISTRICT.

9old mound or eminence has a peaceful beauty peculiar to itself. A

10sea of yellow grass rippling in the breeze, edged on the west by a

11silver ribbon of river, are the features that first strike the eye.

12Dotted over the surface are dark clumps of trees round the wells,

13and here and there a few groves of date palms. Towards the river

14long stretches of green wheat are to be seen, while nearer in the

15cultivation is hidden from view, or only peeps out near a well

16or where a piece of saildb cultivation larger than usual is

17found. Beyond the river rise dark against the horizon the

18trees growing round villages that fringe the further bank.

19Trans-Chenab from the junction of the rivers to Ahmadpur, the

20saildb lands are bounded by a high bank separating them from

21the Kachhi tract described above. At Ahmadpur the level of the

22country seems to sink, the hank to disappear, and the flood water

23of the river passing to the west of Ahmadpur finds its way by

24depressions and canals into the Kandiwiil lake 1 (jhll ) lying

25immediately under the high wall of the Thai.

26The Jhelam has a course of about 45 miles in length from the

27point where it first touches the Jhang district down to its point of

28junction with the Chenab, the Domel as it is called. As compared

29with the Chenab, the Jhelum contains a much smaller volume of

30water, and flows in a much more confined channel. The area subject

31to inundation from the Jhelam is much less extensive, though in

32flood season the rise in the river must be considerably higher than

33that of the Chenab. The erosive action of the Jhelam is quite as

34powerful as that of the Chenab, but its deposits are far richer in

35argillaceous matter. There is more mud and less sand. A deposit

36of Jhelain silt often bears a good crop of coarse rico the first year

37it is formed. The country on the banks of tho Jhelam is fertile,

38well wooded, densely cultivated, and supports a larger population

39than any other portion of the district. There is hardly any waste

40land. The Jhelain being a narrow stream, islands (bells or bindis )

41are seldom met with.

42The Rivi, which is almost everywhere fordable, first touches

43the district at a point only 11 miles from where it falls into the *

44Chen&b, but the length of its singularly tortuous course between

45these two points must be nearly double that distance. Judging from

46the description ol the Ravi given by Mr. Purser in the Montgomery

47Settlement Report, the character of the lower Ravi varies consider-

48ably, from that of the upper. On the Jhang side of the river the

49Ravi saildb lands are separated by a very high bank from the lands

50of the Ut&r. The outline of this bank is most irregular in its

51twists and turns, carved out as it has been by the action of this

52most erratic river. Below this bank lies a considerable tract of bet

53of a very uneven surface and quality, and intersected by numerous

54old channels of the Ravi. These are called J3udh t or TJhan, and in

55the cold weather such of them as have not subsequently silted up

56and become dry, afford both water to th ejhaldrs and excellent duck-

57shooting. At the end of one cold weather it is impossible to predict

58where the river will be at the beginning of the next, beyond that

59it will be below the XJtar bank. Its course is the most capricious

60and inconstant of all the rivers ol this district. Ordinarily it does