UPPER INDIA. 39 



Besides the damage done to the higher lands by washing 

 away their soil, carrying away the manure, &c., we must 

 consider what are the results of this to the low-lying lands im- 

 mediately below them, and in the smaller valleys of the water- 

 courses, which carry their waters to the rivers, as also to the 

 rivers themselves, and the countries through which they flow. 



Where there are depressions on^the surface of the country 

 the rain-water finds its way to them, carrying with it the 

 manurial matters that were on the surface of the drainage 

 area. These depressions are known in India as jheels. The 

 area of these jheels is considerably greater in the rains than 

 at any other time of the year, from their spreading over the 

 surrounding low-lying land. They are mostly shallow, are 

 filled during and shortly after the rains with a dense growth 

 of flags, bulrushes, and other aquatic plants in their shallower 

 parts, and water-lilies where deeper. These plants die in the 

 cold weather, the jheels gradually decrease, the water being 

 lost by evaporation, or drawn off to irrigate the neighbouring 

 fields, and the shallower jheels are altogether dried up during 

 the hot weather. The decayed remains of the plants which 

 grew in them, and the vegetable matters brought to them 

 by surface- drainage, form a greasy, slimy mud, which, when 

 exposed to the sun, on drying, causes malaria, and makes the 

 surrounding country unhealthy. 



The area of the land draining into the jheel may be five 

 or ten times the area of the jheel itself. The drainage area 

 cannot increase but by the action of water on the surface, the 

 drainage channels to the jheel are improved, and the water 

 falling on the drainage area more quickly finds its way to 

 the jheel. With the water, besides the vegetable matter 

 before mentioned, mineral soil is also carried down to the 

 jheel, and it gradually silts up. Another cause of their 

 filling up is found in the dust-storms of the hot weather. 



