1 INTRODUCTORY CEE
2 Part L—Brisf Déseription of the Provines:
3 winter evenings, They: keep very mucli.tothemselves, migration being almost confined to the neighbour-
4 ing mountains.and’ low hills. ae
5 a From the borders of Chamba, the westernmost portion of’ the tract, tothe River Jahlam, the fron-
6 fier between Kashmfr and* the Panjab lies immediately at the foot-of the mountains, which are wholl;
7 included-in-the former.;,and the tract just: described is the only mountainous portion, of the Province witl
8 the-exception.of the country beyond the Salt Range.
9 8, The Sub-Montane Tract.—Skirting the base of: the hills, and including the low outlying range of
10 the- Siwdliks, runs a narrow sub-montane zone which includes -the four northern fahst/e of Ambala with
11 the Kalsia State, the whole of the Hushy4rpur District, the three northern éghst/s of Gurdaspur, tessi/s.
12 Zaftatw4l.and Sidlkot of the Sialkot District, and the northern portion of Géjrdt.. This sub-montane tract,
13 secure in an ample rainfall’ and traversed: by streams from the neighbouring hills, comprises some 6,680
14 square miles.of the most fertile and thickly-peopled portions of the:province, and is inhabited by a popu-
15 lation of. about: 2,998,000 souls who differ little in race, religion, or language from their neighbours of the
16 plains proper described below in §§.14 fo 16. The-tract has only one town, Sidikot, of more than 22,900.
17 inhabitants, its trade.and manufactures are insignificant, and its population is almost entirely agricultural,
18 and inthe low hills:pastoral.. ¢
19 _ 9. The Eastern:Plains.—The remainder-of the Panjab, with the exception of the tract cut off by the
20 Salt Range which I' shall’ describe presently, consists of one vast plain, unbroken save by the wide eroded
21 valleys. withia which the great Panjab rivers ever shift their beds, and by the insignificant spur of ‘the
22 Aravalli mourtain-system-which runs through the Gurgdon district and the south of Dehli and xe-appears
23 «in the low hills.of Chiniot and‘Ker4na in Jhang. A meridian.through the city of Lafiore divides this wide
24 “egpanse into two very: dissimilar tracts which I shall distinguish as the Eastern and the Western Plains,
25 To the éast of Lahore the: rainfall: is everywhere so: far sufficient that cultivation is possible without .
26 irrigation: in fairly favourable seagons ; but over the greater portion of the area the margin is so, slight
27 that, save where the crops are protected by artificial irrigation, any material reduction in the su
28 ply entails distress: if not actual famine ;. and while the Eastern Plains, comprising only a quarter of
29 area of the Province, indlude-half its cultivation, nearly. half its opulation, and almost all'its most fertile
30 potions, they also-include all those parts which, by very virtue e. possibility of unirrigated cultivation,
31 are peculigrly liable to disastrous failure of crops. ;
32 to, Physical Divisions of the Eastern Plains.—A broad strip parallel tothe sub-montane zone -par-
33 takes in a lower degree of its ample rainfall. It is traversed.by the Upper Satluj, the Beds, the Ravi, the
34 Bari Dodb Canal, and-many, smaller streams which bring dowm with them. and deposit fertilising loatn from
35 the iower hills, irrigation’ front wells is everywhere easy, and the tract is even superior in fertility,
36 sevutity of produce, and populousness, to the sub-montane zone itself. It includes the two southern tahsi/s
37 sof Ambala, the northern portions.of Pati4la-and Nabha, the whole.of the Lédhiéna, Jalandhar, and Amritsar
38 districts and‘of the Kapdrthala State, and:so much of the Gurdaspur and Stdjkot districts as is not included
39 in-the sub-montane'zone. Its area.is $ome 8,600 square miles and the population about 4,035,000-
40 11; The next most fertile strip is that running along the eastern border of the Province parallel to the
41 River Janna. It enjoys a fair average rainfall, it includes the low riverain tract along the Jamna itself
42 ‘Where swell isigation is S00, tee Secepe a and its tributaries bravo a peenpinaigresl area, pec dioer much of
43 it is watered: per id ry 89 that it is for the most. we against
44 ‘famine, Tt ‘cnpioesthe whole oe Dab division with the exception of the Kathal and Rewéti tahsils
45 of Karnal and Gurgdon, together with the small state of Pataudi and the Gohd4na and Sdmpla ¢ahstls of the
46 ~ Rohtak. district ; its area is about 4,870 square miles, and its population some: 1,848,000 souls. :
47 12, Along the southern. border of the tract run the Hiss4r and Sirsa districts with the small states of
48 Dujina and:Lohdri, the Muktsar te#si/‘of Firozpor, the Rohtak and Jhajjar fahsils af the Rohtak district,
49 the Rewéti ¢ais{/-of Gurgdon, and: some outlying portions of Patiala, Tend, and Nabha. This ig.the most
50 -urifertile fortion of the tract. A lange part of it skirts the great‘R4jpitana desert, the-soil is often inferior,
51 the rainfall always scanty ahd .precarious, while except in the south-eastern corner, where alone wells can
52 be profitably worked; irrigation is almost unknown save where the Western Janina Canal-enters Hissar and
53 ‘the Satluj, borders’ the Sirsa district?, The area is about 11,570 square miles, and the population about:
54 1,665,000. This and the central portion-next to:be described are the parts of the Panjab wi famine is
55 nost to be -dreadéd*. ‘ <
56 ‘13. The remaining ot great central portion of the tract includes ‘the greater of the states of
57 Patidla, Na&bha and Jind, the KaitHal tahsf/_of Karndt, the three northern tahst/s-of Ftrozpur, the two
58 eastern ¢ahsi/s-of Lahore, and the states of-Farfdkot.and’ Malerkotla. _{ts-area is-some 9,980 square miles
59 and its population about 2,810,000. It occupies: an intermediate position in respect of fertility between
60 the fwo preceding tracts, the rainfall generally-being highest and the soil! best to the east,west, and north,
61 sim the direction: of the Jamna, the Satluj;, and: the hills, and Jowest and worst in the centre and south,
62 whilexto the north-east the Ghaggar system of‘hill streams inundates. a certain area, and well irrigation: is
63 practised along the Satluj and the northern border.
64 14, ‘Ethnography of the Eastern Plains.—The plains east of Lahore have thus been split up-into
65 wones of varying fertility by lines runing for the most ‘part parallel to: the hills. But the boundaries
66 which separate religion, race, and lan; are. somewhat different from these. A meridian throngh the
67 ‘town of Sathind; nearly due north-of Patidla and once the capital of a Mughal shire, but razed to the
68 Goan by the victorious Sikhs in 1763 in. revenge for the assassination a the children of Guru Govind
69 Siggh which had taken place there some sixty years before, roughly divides, as the name of the town
70 implies (Ser head and Hind Hindustdn),:the Panjab Proper from Hondustdn and the Panjébi from the
71 3 A.certain area is’alao inundated by the precarious floods lower. 7
72 4 Bot the Sarin d Canal wiih bas fut Sees opaoed ah aac cee aE the contra nd see potion of the southern track
73 3