194 Report on the Geology, Zoology, fyc. [No. 135. 



rocky mountainous countries, which though he overran, are anything 

 but subdued, and are ready to a man, to rise at the first signal reverse 

 happening to the Sikh arms. It is bounded to the East and South East 

 by the Sutledge ; to the North by the snowy range of the Himalaya, 

 beyond which its feudatories, the Jummoo Rajas, had carried their arms ; 

 to the West by the Khybur and Soliman ranges of mountains ; and to 

 the South by the state of Sinde and Bahawulpore. The whole country 

 is of an ovoidal form, lying in a S. W. and N. E. direction, with the 

 apex towards Shikarpore, between the latitudes of 29° and 34° N., and 

 longitudes of 71° and 76° E. and covering about 85,000 square miles. 

 But although this country covers a vast deal of ground, a great part of 

 it only nominally belongs to the Sikhs. This is the case with all the hilly 

 country N. W. of Lahore, Sucket, Mundee, &c. a large portion of the 

 hilly country west of the Indus, with the exception of Peshawur, Dera 

 Ismaeel Khan and Dera Ghazee Khan, which are ruled by Sikh gover- 

 nors ; viz. the country to the North and West of Durbund, all the 

 country south of the Teeree or Khybur range, comprehending Cohat, 

 Khuttuk, Kalabagh, &c. 



Physical aspect of the Country. — The Punjaub is an extensive flat 

 plain with mountains to the North and West, and open to the South 

 and East, and traversed by five magnificent rivers, the Sutledge, Ravee, 

 Chinaub, Jehlum, and Indus, the fertilizing effects of which, protected 

 and encouraged by a mild and powerful Government, will some day render 

 it one of the finest countries in India. At the present moment, the vast 

 plain presents nothing but a waste, comparatively speaking, with here 

 and there cultivation. Even in the neighbourhood of the very capital 

 itself we meet with extensive jungles, the luxuriance of their rank 

 vegetation shewing what the country could be made. But of all people 

 in India, there are probably none so badly adapted for the plough as the 

 Sikhs ; and the other inhabitants of the Punjaub form, comparatively 

 speaking, but a small population for this extensive country. There is 

 nothing, however, which strikes the traveller so much as the scanty po- 

 pulation* of the Punjaub, when compared with the well populated 

 country include dunder the protected states. Proceeding from Lahore 

 to Julalpore, via Kori, Merali wallah, Allipore, Ramnuggur, Mangut, &c. 



* The greater part of ihe Mussulman agricultural population of the Punjaub are 

 Juts, a class of Hindkees. 



