1837.] Lodiana to Mithankot by the Satlaj river. 181 



Bakhsh Singh, who added to it large possessions on both sides of 

 the river. On the death of Gur Bakhsh Singh, his four sons divid- 

 ed the territory between them, and the fort and adjacent lands fell to 

 the share of Dhana Singh before mentioned. Dhana Singh dying 

 without male issue, his three surviving brothers put in their claim to 

 the estate, but the widow Lachman Kaur referred her cause to the 

 Political Agent at Ambdla, and it was ultimately decided in her favor 

 by a reference to the Shaster law. 



The Kaggar river, from which Firoz Shah III. dug a canal to the 

 Kerah, is said to have emptied itself into the Satlaj near Firozpur. 

 We found no trace of it. If the Kaggar be understood to be the 

 same river with the Gaggar which ran between Ambdla and Sarhind, 

 and afterwards received another river from Shahabad and the Saras- 

 wati from Thanesar, there must be some mistake in supposing that it 

 ever joined the Satlaj near Firozpur. The old course of the Gaggar 

 is well known ; after reaching the Bhatne'r frontier it went by the 

 name of S6tre, and its direction through the desert to near Dilawen, 

 where it was lost in the sands, may be traced by the forts of Surat- 

 garh,"^ Chehdrgarh, Phulra 1st, Phulra 2nd, Mojhgarh, Marrath, Ruk- 

 kanpur, which were built on its banks. This channel has long ago 

 been filled up with sand, and it is only here and there at long inter- 

 vals that any traces of it remain. 



From the 3rd to the 12th of January we were detained at Firozpur, 

 surveying the boundary of the Sirdarni's little territory. We found 

 it very ill defined and disputed on every side. Of the country we 

 saw, not more than one-thirtieth part was under cultivation ; the rest 

 was either entirely barren or covered with a low straggling brush- 

 wood of no value. There was a large tract of karil Q.ndjhand jungle, 

 and I also heard of a forest of sisu at some distance, but did not visit 

 the spot to ascertain the fact. 



In the jhand and karil jungles, which I traversed in following the 

 Firozpur boundaries, I observed several sites of towns and villages, 

 and a great number of fine paka wells, now half filled with rubbish 

 and fallen to decay, but which sufficiently prove that the country 

 was formerly thickly inhabited. It has suffered much from the 

 misrule which has long prevailed. The petty states by which it is 

 surrounded are so promiscuously interwoven in their limits that it 

 would be difficult to point to one among them which is not at vari- 

 ance with all the rest as to its boundaries. To this circumstance 

 must be mainly attributed the immense quantity of waste land which 

 meets the eye in every direction ; for no sooner does one party 



