912 A few Notes on the subject of [No. 155. 



of tillage in the Terrai. Such is my general position ; but, local cir- 

 cumstances also added to the deterioration ; and amongst these, an 

 allusion on my part is all that is necessary or proper to the hasty and 

 perfunctory mode of settlement adopted in the earlier years of the 

 British rule, to the disputes in and out of court, concerning Zemin- 

 darry rights between Seeb Lall and Lall Sing ; and again between the 

 latter and his elder brother Mahendra Sing's family ; to the continued 

 bad police management ; and, perhaps more than all, to the neglect 

 and difference of the English revenue officers, who were scared away 

 from the tract by the bad reputation of its climate, and only occasion- 

 ally attracted thither by its facilities for sport. 



In fact, the sum of the whole matter is, in my opinion, this : that 

 even long neglect in other quarters can by a change of system, be 

 speedily remedied ; but, that in the peculiar region of which we are 

 treating, a very brief period of neglect or bad management is sufficient 

 to ruin the country. Its physical character has been well described 

 by others, but more especially and directly in the recent Irrigation Re- 

 port of Captain Jones, and incidentally in the lately discovered and pub- 

 lished Geological Report by the late Captain Herbert.* Under the base 

 of the hills, surface irrigation from the several streams that issue 

 therefrom, can be carried on without difficulty to a certain distance 

 on either side of them by means of water-courses taken off at different 

 levels, this distance or point of non-irrigation being determined by 

 the slope of the country, and the absorbing or retaining qualities of 

 the soil, and consequently by the time of disappearance of water in the 

 several rivers. Hence, in the Upper Bhabur, so long as an agricultural 

 population can be found, extensive patches of fine cultivationf will 

 always exist ; but, at wide intervals, and with but a short prolonga- 

 tion to the Southward. Then, succeeds the okhur bhoomee, or dry 

 region of forest and prairie, beneath the rich mould and enormous 

 beds of gravel of which, at an hitherto undiscoverable depth, flows the 

 drainage of the lower mountains ; the point of re-appearance of water 



* Journal Asiatic Society, Vol. XI, the map published with Vol. XIII. 



t The superficial soil in the Bhabur when well irrigated, supplies admirable crops 

 of wheat, mustard and the like ; but is said to be too light for sugar-cane, cotton and 

 other staples ; my own opinion is, that every thing could be produced, if the cultivators 

 were permanent and of an industrious race, instead of being only hybernating Puhar- 

 rees. 



