Gazetteer Of The Punjab Provincial Volume 1888-89

· 1888 · Public domain (published pre-1930) · archive.org ↗

1Ghapter II, O,

2The Plains.

3The area of closed

4drainage.

5{ Furjab Gazetteer,

680 OHAP, II.—GEOLOGY,

7basin. At thé head, along the base of the Siwsliks, that aren is

875 miles wide: but as the Sutlej immediately on leaving its gorge

9takes a course to north of west up to its confluence with the Beas

10near Sobraon, the area in question widens rapidly, so that on

11Eastein plaius. qMrallel through Delhi the Jumna and Sutlej are 230 miles apart,

12The rivers have

13‘wo considerable streams, the Markanda and the Ghaggar, and many

14minor ones, leave the hills within this aren and flow straight wales

15sea-warda; but they are nearly expended by evaporation and!

16soukage before reaching tha south boundary of the Punjab, and

17entirely disappear in the desert of Bikanir. They were once probably

18tributaries of the Sutle) when it formerly held a more direct

19southerly course ; or more certainly of the Jumna if ever its waters,

20ns is extremely probable, flowed to the western ses. Here then

21only recently censed we can be certain that the whole work done by these rivers is

22to deposit and

23begun to erode,

24Saline nature of the

25well water in the

26alien of closed

27drainage,

28Submontane tract,

29Absence of the

30Tarai zone,

31expendeé within the area. For “ time out of mind’ none of the

32detritus from the hills fora length of at least 60 miles has left this

33ground, yet the surface here has not been essentially chunged since

34the Jumna ceased to be the chief depositor, We are thus again

35led to the inference that this cannot have been very long ago.

36There is another feature of this case that requires notice.

37Modern primers of geography tell us what is the almost inevitable

38result of a drainage aren having vo outlet—that the enclosed basin

39becomes saline from the continuous evaporation of drainage water,

40which always contains some salt in solution. The only thing that

41can prevent this result isga sufficient underground percolation,

42which would have the same purifying effect as a surface outlet.

43It is clear that a similar result must ensue when the drainage water

44is dissipated without collecting in a basin, only the product. will

45be more diffused. Now this effect is well marked in this peculiar

46area; all the southern part of it, where ‘the final evaporation takes

47place, is extensively impregnated with suline matter, so that good

48drinking water is scarce. At Bhiwani, south of Hissar, the ground:

49water was found to be brackish to a depth of 400 feet. This area

50of closed drainage forms nearly a third of the Ptinjab plains, the

51remainder being -occupied in succession from east to west by the

52Jullundhur, the Bari, the Rechna, the Jetch, and the Sind Sagar

53doabs, with the narrow tract known as the Derajat between the

54Indus and the Suleman range. To all these the foregoing, general

55considerations are applicable,

56There remains to be noticed but one point of contrast with the

57eastern or Gangetic area of this continuous for hiation. The zone

58so well known in the latter region as the Tarat is not distinetively

59represented west of the Jumua. It is a broad belt on the outer

60edge of the gravel slopes everywhere found next the hills, This

61coarse deposit absorbs water copiously along the foot of the hills,

62and so much of this 28 does not penetrate to the deep water-bearing

63strata fiuds its way to fie surface again along the outer edge’ of

64the gravel beds, where also an abrupt change of slope occurs, In

65this way there is formed the second zone of peculiarly swampy

66ground known as the Zarai, the inner gravelly slope being known

67asthe Bhdébar, or forest zone. Although the gravel zone is of