106 The Ancient Canals in the Delhi Territory. [Marcu, 
of more moderate dimensions, and, to turn the water into the cross-cuts 
formed, must have been closed below Fattehgarh, probably by an earthen 
dam renewed annually, no remains whatsoever of any permanent work 
remaining in that vicinity. By one or other, or all of the channels, the 
remains of which now exist, the water was conveyed across a tongue 
of land into what is clearly another old channel of the Jamna under 
Burya, being a wide hollow, skirting the high ground to its north 
and west, which is continuous, though with numerous and deep inden- 
tations, from the hills along the right bank of the Svmbe river, and then 
following this water-course as far as Karndl ; towards the hills rising 
little short of 100 feet, and sinking south of Karndl, near Uncha Sumdnd, 
(where the canal enters on the high land, and diverges from the Jamna,) 
to about 15 feet. Above this point the land on the left bank is 
uniformly low, extending to and forming the Kadir land of the 
Jamna, a most fertile tract, almost entirely under cultivation, and 
from its composition, and the closeness of water to the surface, almost 
independent of irrigation. 
From Uncha Samdnd, a canal must have been excavated, at first 
of great depth, but gradually diminishing as it approached Suffi- 
don, near which it opened into a branch of the Chittang river, 
said to come from near Teradrié by Baréd, a few miles east of 
Suffédon*, along which the canal was led with partial excavations, of 
which the remains exist, in some places more, in others less, (as would 
be the case in clearing out a river bed,) until it rejoined the other 
branch of the Chztang, at Dhdtrat. From Dhdtrat the marks are more 
apparent of its having been an ancient river bed, simply cleared out 
to pass on a stream of water to Hissar, and a few miles beyond the 
latter, apparently with a view to provide an escape for the surplus water 
of the canal into the old bed of the river ; as within a few miles of Hissar 
all trace of former excavation ceases, whilst the river bed is continu 
ous; latterly, winding among the sand hills of Bhikanér, or more properly 
speaking, along the northern bounds of the sandy desertt, until the 
bed unites with that of the Ghaghar river, near Badhopal, and about 22 
* Of this branch all I am aware of is, that in heavy seasons of rain great floods 
pour into the canal near Baréd, said to be consequent on the destruction of the 
earthen dams of the Chitang. 
+ The grounds of this remark are, that south of the bed of the Chitang the 
country is merely a succession of hills, and swells of sand, in some parts rising 200 
feet, whilst to the north the sand is chiefly in detached ridges and patches ; the sub- 
soil, when it gets clear of the drift sand, being a hard flat, covered with low tree 
jungle, totally different from the sandy desert of Bhikantr. 
