Fig. 106. Shop in Murree Bazár.

Ráwalpindí is the largest cantonment in Northern India. From it the favourite hill station of Murree is easily reached, and soon after leaving Murree the traveller crosses the Jhelam by the Kohála bridge and enters the territory of the Mahárája of Kashmír.

Area, 4025 sq. m. Cultd area, 1678 sq. m. Pop. 519,273; 91 p.c. M. Land Rev. Rs. 672,851 =£44,857.

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Fig. 107.

Attock district.—Though Attock is twice the size of Ráwalpindí it has a smaller population. Nature has decreed that it should be sparsely peopled. The district stretches from the Salt Range on the south to the Hazára border on the north. It contains itself the fine Kálachitta range in the north, the small and barren Khairí Múrat range in the centre, and a line of bare hills running parallel with the Indus in the west. That river forms the western boundary for 120 miles, dividing Attock from Pesháwar and Kohát. It receives in the Attock district two tributaries, the Haro and the Soán. There are four tahsíls, Attock, Fatehjang, Pindigheb, and Talagang. The northern tahsíl of Attock is most favoured by nature. It contains the Chach plain, part of which has a rich soil and valuable well irrigation, also on the Hazára border a small group of estates watered by cuts from the Haro. The south of the tahsíl is partly sandy and partly has a dry gritty or stony soil. Here the crops are very insecure. The rest of the district is a plateau. The northern part consists of the tahsíls of Fatehjang and Pindigheb drained by the Soán and its tributary the Sil. The southern is occupied by tahsíl Talagang, a rough plateau with deep ravines and torrents draining northwards into the Soán. In the valleys of the Sil and Soán some good crops are raised. The soil of the plateau is very shallow, and the rainfall being scanty the harvest is often dried up. The chief crops are wheat and bájra. Awáns form the bulk of the agricultural population.

Area, 5395 sq. m. Cultd area, 1020 sq. m. Pop. 341,377; 88 p.c. M. Land Rev. Rs. 359,836 = £23,989.

Mianwálí is one of the largest districts, but has the smallest population of any except Simla. The Indus has a course of about 180 miles in Mianwálí. In the north it forms the boundary between the Mianwálí tahsíl and the small Isakhel tahsíl on the right bank. In the south it divides the huge Bhakkar tahsíl, which is bigger than an average district, from the Dera Ismail Khán district of the N.W.F. Province. It is joined from the west by the Kurram, which has a short course in the south of the Isakhel tahsíl. The Salt Range extends into the district, throwing off from its western extremity a spur which runs north to the Indus opposite Kálabágh. Four tracts may be distinguished, two large and two small. North and east of the Salt Range is the Khuddar or ravine country, a little bit of the Awánkárí or Awán's land, which occupies a large space in Attock. West of the Indus in the north the wild and desolate Bhangí-Khel glen with its very scanty and scattered cultivation runs north to the Kohát Hills. The rest of the district consists of the wide and flat valley of the Indus and the Thal or Uplands. In the north the latter includes an area of strong thirsty loam, but south of the railway it is a huge expanse of sand rising frequently into hillocks and ridges with some fertile bottoms of better soil. Except in the north the Thal people used to make their living almost entirely as shepherds and camel owners. There were scattered little plots of better soil where wells were sunk, and the laborious and careful cultivation was and is Dutch in its neatness. Some millets were grown in the autumn and the sandhills yielded melons. The people have now learned that it is worth while to gamble with a spring crop of gram, and this has led to an enormous extension of the cultivated area. But even now in Mianwálí this is a comparatively small fraction of the total area. There is a small amount of irrigation from wells and in the neighbourhood of Isakhel from canal cuts from the Kurram. Owing to the extreme scantiness of the rainfall the riverain depends almost entirely on the Indus floods, to assist the spread of which a number of embankments are maintained. Everywhere in Mianwálí the areas both of crops sown and of crops that ripen fluctuate enormously, and much of the revenue has accordingly been put on a fluctuating basis. The chief crops are wheat, bájra, and gram. Jats[12] are in a great majority Cis-Indus, but Patháns are important in Isakhel.