CHAPTER XIII. 



DEHRA 



ALTHOUGH the town of Dehra is well known 

 to the English in India, I imagine that but few 

 persons in this country have ever heard of it or of the 

 valley in which it is situated. A short description of 

 both may, therefore, be interesting, and this will be 

 a convenient opportunity for introducing it. 



The Doon, or, to give it its full appellation, the 

 " Dehra Doon," or " Valley of the Tent," is, as I have 

 already stated, that tract of level ground which lies 

 between the Himalaya mountains and that offshoot 

 from them now known among the English as the 

 Shewalic range. Across the eastern end of the valley 

 flows the river Ganges, and across it, near to its western 

 end, flows the Jumna. The space between these two 

 rivers constitutes the Dehra Doon. The two small 

 tracts beyond the rivers at either end go by other 

 designations ; but being mere uninhabited waste and 

 forest, they do not call for any special mention or 

 consideration. 



The Dehra Doon is about fifty miles in length, and 

 from twelve to fifteen in breadth. It contains an area 

 of a little over four hundred thousand acres, of which, 



217 



