274 VEGETATION, ETC., OF THE PUNJAB. 



if properly used in irrigation, will ere long render it the Eden of 

 India. But hi crossing the Punjab in different directions, the 

 traveller may be led to very different conclusions as to its fertility. 

 Crossing the river Sutlej at Phillore, and proceeding in a north- 

 west direction, vid Jullunder, Hoshiarpore, Deenanuggur, Sealkote, 

 Wuzeerabad,and(Joojrat,he would be led to believe that the country 

 was both densely populated and highly cultivated up to the Salt 

 range. Crossing the Sutlej at Hurree Ke-Ghat, and proceeding via 

 Amritsir to Lahore, and thence on to the Salt range, by a route 

 40 miles to the south, viz. by Ramnuggur to Pinddadun-Khan, he 

 would come to the conclusion that cultivation was only carried on 

 to any extent in the first, or Baree Doab, and that two-thirds of 

 the country beyond the Ravi was lying waste. Still further to the 

 westward, and nearer the great desert, waste land in a greater 

 proportion exists, and population is scanty in the extreme. 



We have, therefore, three belts all of which show different 

 results. The first showing high cultivation and a rich and densely 

 populated country. The second partial cultivation, with, here and 

 there, towns and villages, round which good cultivation exists, but 

 the larger portion lying waste. And the third, a waste com- 

 paratively speaking with a few villages breaking up now and then 

 the monotony of the Jhar (Zizyphus), Babul Acacia and Dhak 

 (Butea) Jungle. But the changes which have been effected 

 within the last four years in the Baree and Rechna Doabs are 

 truly remarkable. When we visited the Punjab in 1841-42, 

 extensive jungles existed in the neighbourhood of the very 

 capital, giving cover to deer, wild hogs, &c, and affording sport to 

 the late Maharajah and his nobles. In our late journey we looked 

 for these jungles in vain, all having given way to the plough- 

 share, and presenting, in their room, rich fields of cultivation. 

 Such, too, was the case with the Shikargah of Rajah Dhian Singh, 

 on the right side of the Ravi, distant some ten miles from Lahore. 



Traversing the country in a north and south direction we meet 

 with bunds, or belts of lands the former beds of rivers, and 

 showing that their courses have been altered. Thus the Sutlej, 

 which formerly ran close to the town of Loodiana, is now seven 

 miles to the westward. The Ravi, which twenty or thirty years 

 ago washed the walls of the city of Lahore, runs in a chaunel 

 three miles further west. The Chenab, which a few years ago 

 ran close to the towns of Ramnuggur and Wuzeerabad, is now 

 four miles distant, and the same applies to the Jhelum and 

 Indus where not closed in by mountains. 



