EDGEWORTH'S ACCOUNT OF THE SIKH STATES. 279 
the desert, a considerable quantity of alkali is manufactured 
from a species of Salsola* and forms a considerable article of 
commerce under the name of sajji. 
* The population of the third tract differs very much from 
that of the former ones. In the more northern parts the 
zemindars are mostly Musalmán Rajpits, with few Jats among 
them; but as we come southward the proportion gradually. 
changes, till in the Zihara a Musalmán is scarcely to be found 
and the zemindars are almost universally Jats and of the Sikh 
persuasion; in that part of the country also the Kahar or 
bearer caste disappears, and among the lower people the 
 SWeepers, assuming the title of Rangrethas, are the most 
numerous, 
_ “Lastly, a few words on the two strips of land bordering 
the Jumna and the Sutlej. 
“The Khadir of the former may be considered as upper 
and lower; the upper, contained within the branches of the 
Jumna meeting near Rajghat, is almost entirely populated by 
Goojürs. The soil is cold, moist and sandy; as may easily 
be imagined possession is most precarious, these upper 
branches of the river constantly changing their course.— 
An old tree is therefore seldom to be seen, or a pukka house; 
generally grass-sheds constitute the only habitations, because 
the sandy soil will not bind to form mud walls, but is washed 
. lo pieces by the first rain ; thus fires are very frequent in the 
hot weather. | Ga giuiqoi 
“The crops are the same as in my first division, exclusive 
of those which 1 mentioned as peculiar to the higher grounds, 
and they only succeed in years when elsewhere there is a 
failure; with moderate rain, this whole country, reticulated as 
_ itis with channels of the Jumna, is overflowed, and it is but 
in very dry seasons that the crops succeed, as in 1837, when 
they were most luxuriant. 
—— .*^ Itis a curious circumstance that I found a species of Salsola near — — 
E growing in a single salt-pan, and not another could be seen any — 
: reed the neighbourhood for miles, though T searched every salt-pan — 
