36 Mr. Hugh Whistler on the 



The length from east to west is 75 miles, its breadth in- 

 creasing from two miles in the east to 55 in the west. It is 

 bounded by the districts of Shahpur and Attock on the 

 west and by Rawal Pindi on the north, while the Jhelura 

 River separates it from Kashmir territory on the north- 

 east, and from Gujrat and Shahpur on the south-east and 

 south (see map Ph II.). 



"The district naturally falls into three divisions. Of these, 

 the north-eastern, which includes the Chakwal tahsil and 

 the narrow Pabbi tract in the north of the Jhelum tahsil, 

 is a wide and. fertile plateau ranging from 1300 to 1900 feet 

 above the sea, with a decided slope to the north-west, until 

 at the Sohan River it reaches the boundary of the district. 

 This plateau is intersected by numerous ravines, which, with 

 the single exception of the Bunha torrent on the east, drain 

 into the Sohan. To the south it culminates in the Salt 

 Range, which runs in two main ridges from east to west, 

 now parallel, now converging, meeting in a confused mass 

 of peaks east of Katas and opening out again. Between 

 these ranges is a succession of fertile and picturesque 

 valleys, set in oval frames by the hills, never more than 

 five miles in width and closed in at either end. The Salt 

 Range runs at a uniform height of 2500 feet till it cul- 

 minates in the peak of Chail (3701 feet). At the eastern 

 end of the Salt Range two spurs diverge north-eastwards, 

 dividing the Jhelum tahsil into three parallel tracts. The 

 northernmost of these, the Pabbi, has already been described. 

 The central tract, lying between the Nili and Tilli spurs, is 

 called the Khuddar, or country of ravines. The whole sur- 

 face seems to have been crumpled up and distorted by con- 

 verging forces from the north and south. Lastly, south of 

 the Tilla Range, lies the riverain tract, which extends along 

 the river from Jhelum town in the north-east to the Shahpur 

 border. Broken only near Jalalpur by a projecting spur of 

 the Salt Range proper, this fertile strip has a breadth of 

 about eight miles along the southern boundary of the Jhelum 

 and Pind Dadan Khan tahsils." 



