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Fig. 108.

Area, 4791 sq. m. Cultd area, 1933 sq. m. Pop. 648,989. Land Rev. Rs. 16,96,272 = £113,085.

Sháhpur is also a very large district with the three tahsíls of Bhera, Sháhpur, and Sargodha in the Jech Doáb, and on the west of the Jhelam the huge Khusháb tahsíl, which in size exceeds the other three put together. The principal tribes are Jats Cis-Jhelam, Awáns in the Salt Range, and Jats and Tiwánas in Khusháb. The Tiwána Maliks have large estates on both sides of the river and much local influence. East of the Jhelam the colonization of the Bár after the opening of the Lower Jhelam Canal has led to a great increase of population and a vast extension of the cultivated area, 71 p.c. of which is irrigated. The part of the district in the Jech Doáb consists of the river valleys of the Chenáb and Jhelam, the Utár, and the Bár. The Chenáb riverain is poor, the Jhelam very fertile with good well irrigation. In the north of the district the Utár, a tract of older alluvium, lies between the present valley of the Jhelam and the Bár. It has hitherto been largely irrigated by public and private inundation canals, but this form of irrigation may be superseded by the excavation of a new distributary from the Lower Jhelam Canal. Till the opening of that canal the Bár was a vast grazing area with a little cultivation on scattered wells and in natural hollows. North of the Kirána Hill the soil is excellent and the country is now a sheet of cultivation. In the south of the Bár much of the land is too poor to be worth tillage. The Khusháb tahsíl consists of the Jhelam riverain, the Salt Range with some fertile valleys hidden amid barren hills, the Mohár below the hills with a thirsty soil dependent on extremely precarious torrent floods, and the Thal, similar to that described on page [260]. The rainfall of the district is scanty averaging eleven or twelve inches. The chief crops are wheat, bájra and jowár, charí and cotton.

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Fig. 109.

Area, 28,652 sq. m. Cultd area, 9160 sq. m. Pop. 3,772,728; 78 p.c. M. Land Rev. Rs. 81,48,103 = £542,872.

The Multán division consists of the six districts of the S.W. Panjáb, Montgomery, Lyallpur, Jhang, Multán, Muzaffargarh, and Dera Ghází Khán. Muhammadans are in an overwhelming majority. Wheat and cotton are the chief crops.