MOUNTAINS, HILLS, AND PLAINS
~The Great Northern Rampart.~--The huge mountain rampart which guards the
northern frontier of India thrusts out in the north-west a great bastion
whose outer walls are the Hindu Kush and the Muztagh-Karakoram ranges.
Behind the latter with a general trend from south-east to north-west are
the great valley of the Indus to the point near Gilgit where it turns
sharply to the south, and a succession of mountain chains and glens
making up the Himalayan tract, through which the five rivers of the
Panjáb and the Jamna find their way to the plains. To meet trans-Indus
extensions of the Himálaya the Hindu Kush pushes out from its main axis
great spurs to the south, flanking the valleys which drain into the
Indus either directly or through the Kábul river.
~The Himálaya.~--Tibet, which from the point of view of physical geography
includes a large and little known area in the Kashmír State to the north
of the Karakoram range, is a lofty, desolate, wind swept plateau with a
mean elevation of about 15,000 feet. In the part of it situated to the
north of the north-west corner of Nipál lies the Manasarowar lake, in
the neighbourhood of which three great Indian rivers, the Tsanpo or
Brahmapútra, the Sutlej, and the Indus, take their rise. The Indus flows
to the north-west for 500 miles and then turns abruptly to the south to
seek its distant home in the Indian Ocean. The Tsanpo has a still
longer course of 800 miles eastwards before it too bends southwards to
flow through Assam into the Bay of Bengal. Between the points where
these two giant rivers change their direction there extends for a
distance of 1500 miles the vast congeries of mountain ranges known
collectively as the "Himálaya" or "Abode of Snow." As a matter of
convenience the name is sometimes confined to the mountains east of the
Indus, but geologically the hills of Buner and Swát to the north of
Pesháwar probably belong to the same system. In Sanskrit literature the
Himalaya is also known as "Himavata," whence the classical Emodus.
[Illustration: Fig. 2. Orographical Map.]
~The Kumáon Himálaya.~--The Himálaya may be divided longitudinally into
three sections, the eastern or Sikkim, the mid or Kumáon, and the
north-western or Ladákh. With the first we are not concerned. The Kumáon
section lies mainly in the United Provinces, but it includes the sources
of the Jamna, and contains the chain in the Panjáb which is at once the
southern watershed of the Sutlej and the great divide between the two
river systems of Northern India, the Gangetic draining into the Bay of
Bengal, and the Indus carrying the enormous discharge of the north-west
Himálaya, the Muztagh-Karakoram, and the Hindu Kush ranges into the
Indian Ocean. Simla stands on the south-western end of this watershed,
and below it the Himálaya drops rapidly to the Siwálik foot-hills and to
the plains. Jakko, the _deodár_-clad hill round which so much of the
life of the summer capital of India revolves, attains a height of 8000
feet. The highest peak within a radius of 25 miles of Simla is the Chor,
which is over 12,000 feet high, and does not lose its snow cap till May.
Hattu, the well-known hill above Narkanda, which is 40 miles from Simla
by road, is 1000 feet lower. But further west in Bashahr the higher
peaks range from 16,000 to 22,000 feet.
[Illustration: Fig. 3. Nanga Parvat.]
~The Inner Himálaya or Zánskar Range.~--The division of the Himálaya into
the three sections named above is convenient for descriptive purposes.
But its chief axis runs through all the sections. East of Nipál it
strikes into Tibet not very far from the source of the Tsanpo, is soon
pierced by the gorge of the Sutlej, and beyond it forms the southern
watershed of the huge Indus valley. In the west this great rampart is
known as the Zánskar range. For a short distance it is the boundary
between the Panjáb and Kashmír, separating two outlying portions of the
Kángra district, Lahul and Spití, from Ladákh. In this section the peaks
are from 19,000 to 21,000 feet high, and the Baralácha pass on the road
from the Kulu valley in Kángra to Leh, the capital of Ladákh, is at an
elevation of about 16,500 feet. In Kashmír the Zánskar or Inner Himálaya
divides the valley of the Indus from those of the Chenáb and Jhelam. It
has no mountain to dispute supremacy with Everest (29,000 feet), or
Kinchinjunga in the Eastern Himálaya, but the inferiority is only
relative. The twin peaks called Nun and Kun to the east of Srínagar
exceed 23,000 feet, and in the extreme north-west the grand mountain
mass of Nanga Parvat towers above the Indus to a height of 26,182 feet.
The lowest point in the chain is the Zojilá (11,300 feet) on the route
from Srínagar, the capital of Kashmír, to Leh on the Indus
The road from Srínagar to Gilgit passes over the Burzil pass at an
elevation of 13,500 feet.
The Zojilá is at the top of the beautiful valley of the Sind river, a
tributary of the Jhelam. The lofty Zánskar range blocks the inward flow
of the monsoon, and once the Zojilá is crossed the aspect of the country
entirely changes. The land of forest glades and green pastures is left
behind, and a region of naked and desolate grandeur begins.
"The waste of snow ... is the frontier of barren Tibet, where sandy
wastes replace verdant meadows, and where the wild ridges, jutting
up against the sky, are kept bare of vegetation, their strata
crumbling under the destructive action of frost and water, leaving
bare ribs of gaunt and often fantastic outline.... The colouring of
the mountains is remarkable throughout Ladákh and nowhere more so
than near the Fotulá (a pass on the road to Leh to the south of the
Indus gorge).... As we ascend the peaks suggest organ pipes, so
vertical are the ridges, so jagged the ascending outlines. And each
pipe is painted a different colour ... pale slate green, purple,
yellow, grey, orange, and chocolate, each colour corresponding with
a layer of the slate, shale, limestone, or trap strata" (Neve's
_Picturesque Kashmir_, pp. 108 and 117).
[Illustration: Fig. 4. Burzil Pass.]
In all this desolation there are tiny oases where level soil and a
supply of river water permit of cultivation and of some tree growth.
~Water divide near Baralácha and Rotang Passes in Kulu.~--We have seen
that the Indus and its greatest tributary, the Sutlej, rise beyond the
Himálaya in the Tibetan plateau. The next great water divide is in the
neighbourhood of the Baralácha pass and the Rotang pass, 30 miles to the
south of it. The route from Simla to Leh runs at a general level of 7000
to 9000 feet along or near the Sutlej-Jamna watershed to Narkanda (8800
feet). Here it leaves the Hindustán-Tibet road and drops rapidly into
the Sutlej gorge, where the Lurí bridge is only 2650 feet above sea
level. Rising steeply on the other side the Jalaurí pass on the
watershed between the Sutlej and the Biás is crossed at an elevation of
10,800 feet. A more gradual descent brings the traveller to the Biás at
Lárjí, 3080 feet above sea level. The route then follows the course of
the Biás through the beautiful Kulu valley to the Rotang pass (13,326
feet), near which the river rises. The upper part of the valley is
flanked on the west by the short, but very lofty Bara Bangáhal range,
dividing Kulu from Kángra and the source of the Biás from that of the
Ráví. Beyond the Rotang is Lahul, which is divided by a watershed from
Spití and the torrents which drain into the Sutlej. On the western side
of this watershed are the sources of the Chandra and Bhága, which unite
to form the river known in the plains as the Chenáb.
~Mid Himálaya or Pangí Range.~--The Mid Himálayan or Pangí range, striking
west from the Rotang pass and the northern end of the Bara Bangáhal
chain, passes through the heart of Chamba dividing the valley of the
Chenáb (Pangí) from that of the Ráví. After entering Kashmír it crosses
the Chenáb near the Kolahoi cone (17,900 feet) and the head waters of
the Jhelam. Thence it continues west over Haramukh (16,900 feet), which
casts its shadow southwards on the Wular lake, to the valley of the
Kishnganga, and probably across it to the mountains which flank the
magnificent Kágan glen in Hazâra.
[Illustration: Fig. 5. Rotang Pass.]
[Illustration: Fig. 6. Mt Haramukh.]
~Outer Himálaya or Dhauladhár-Pir Panjál Range.~--The Outer Himálaya also
starts from a point near the Rotang pass, but some way to the south of
the offset of the Mid Himalayan chain. Its main axis runs parallel to
the latter, and under the name of the Dhauladhár (white ridge) forms the
boundary of the Chamba State and Kángra, behind whose headquarters, at
Dharmsála it stands up like a huge wall. It has a mean elevation of
15,000 feet, but rises as high as 16,000. It passes from Chamba into
Bhadarwáh in Kashmír, and crossing the Chenáb is carried on as the Pír
Panjál range through the south of that State. With an elevation of only
14,000 or 15,000 feet it is a dwarf as compared with the giants of the
Inner Himalayan and Muztagh-Karakoram chains. But it hides them from the
dwellers in the Panjáb, and its snowy crest is a very striking picture
as seen in the cold weather from the plains of Ráwalpindí, Jhelam, and
Gujrát. The Outer Himálaya is continued beyond the gorges of the Jhelam
and Kishnganga rivers in Kajnág and the hills of the Hazára district.
Near the eastern extremity of the Dhauladhár section of the Outer
Himálaya it sends out southwards between Kulu and Mandí a lower
offshoot. This is crossed by the Babbu (9480 feet) and Dulchí passes,
connecting Kulu with Kángra through Mandí. Geologically the Kulu-Mandí
range appears to be continued to the east of the Biás and across the
Sutlej over Hattu and the Chor to the hills near Masúrí (Mussoorie), a
well-known hill station in the United Provinces. Another offshoot at the
western end of the Dhauladhár passes through the beautiful hill station
of Dalhousie, and sinks into the low hills to the east of the Ráví,
where it leaves Chamba and enters the British district of Gurdáspur.
~River Valleys and Passes in the Himálaya.~--While these principal chains
can be traced from south-east to north-west over hundreds of miles it
must be remembered that the Himálaya is a mountain mass from 150 to 200
miles broad, that the main axes are linked together by subsidiary cross
chains dividing the head waters of great rivers, and flanked by long and
lofty ridges running down at various angles to the gorges of these
streams and their tributaries. The typical Himalayan river runs in a
gorge with mountains dipping down pretty steeply to its sides. The lower
slopes are cultivated, but the land is usually stony and uneven, and as
a whole the crops are not of a high class. The open valleys of the
Jhelam in Kashmír and of the Biás in Kulu are exceptions. Passes in the
Himálaya are not defiles between high cliffs, but cross the crest of a
ridge at a point where the chain is locally depressed, and snow melts
soonest. In the Outer and Mid Himálaya the line of perpetual snow is at
about 16,000 feet, but for six months of the year the snow-line comes
down 5000 feet lower. In the Inner Himálaya and the Muztagh-Karakoram,
to which the monsoon does not penetrate, the air is so dry that less
snow falls and the line is a good deal higher.
[Illustration: Fig. 7. R. Jhelam in Kashmír--View towards Mohand Marg.]
[Illustration: Fig. 8. Near Náran in Kágan Glen, Hazára.]
~Himalayan Scenery.~--Certain things strike any observant traveller in the
Himálaya. One is the comparative absence of running or still water,
except in the height of the rainy season, away from the large rivers.
The slope is so rapid that ordinary falls of rain run off with great
rapidity. The mountain scenery is often magnificent and the forests are
beautiful, but the absence of water robs the landscape of a charm which
would make it really perfect. Where this too is present, as in the
valley of the Biás in Kulu and those of the Jhelam and its tributaries
in Kashmír and Hazára, the eye has its full fruition of content.
Another is the silence of the forests. Bird and beast are there, but
they are little in evidence. A third feature which can hardly be missed
is the contrast between the northern and the southern slopes. The former
will often be clothed with forest while the latter is a bare stony slope
covered according to season with brown or green grass interspersed with
bushes of indigo, barberry, or the hog plum (Prinsepia utilis). The
reason is that the northern side enjoys much more shade, snow lies
longer, and the supply of moisture is therefore greater. The grazier for
the same reason is less tempted to fire the hill side in order to
promote the growth of grass, a practice which is fatal to all forest
growth. The rich and varied flora of the Himálaya will be referred to
later.
~Muztagh-Karakoram Ranges.~--The Muztagh-Karakoram mountains form the
northern watershed of the Indus. The range consists of more than one
main axis. The name Karakoram is appropriated to the eastern part of the
system which originates at E. longitude 79° near the Pangong lake in the
Tibetan plateau a little beyond the boundary of Kashmír. Beyond the
Karakoram pass (18,550 ft.) is a lofty bleak upland with salt lakes
dotted over its surface. Through this inhospitable region and over the
Karakoram pass and the Sasser-lá (17,500 ft.) the trade route from
Yarkand to Leh runs. The road is only open for three months in the year,
and the dangers and hardships are great. In 1898 Dr Bullock Workman and
his wife marched along it across the Shyok river, up the valley of the
Nubra, and over the Sasser-lá to the Karakoram pass. The scenery is an
exaggeration of that described by Dr Neve as seen on the road from the
Zoji-lá to Leh. There is a powerful picture of its weird repellent
grandeur in the Workmans' book entitled _In the Ice World of Himálaya_
(pp. 28-29, 30-32). The poet who had found ideas for a new Paradiso in
the Vale of Kashmír might here get suggestions for a new Inferno.
[Illustration: Fig. 9. Muztagh-Karakoram and Himalayan Ranges in
Kashmír.]
The Karakoram range culminates in the north-west near the Muztagh pass
in a group of majestic peaks including K 2 or Mount Godwin Austen
(28,265 feet), Gasherbrum, and Masherbrum, which tower over and feed the
vast Boltoro glacier. The first of these giants is the second largest
mountain in the world. The Duke of the Abruzzi ascended it to the height
of 24,600 feet, and so established a climbing record. The Muztagh chain
carries on the northern bastion to the valley of the Hunza river and
the western extremity of the Hindu Kush. It has several peaks exceeding
25,000 feet. The most famous is Rakiposhi which looks down on Hunza from
a height of 25,550 feet.
~The Hindu Kush.~--The Muztagh chain from the south-east, the Sarikol from
the north-east, and the Hindu Kush from the south-west, meet at a point
to the north of Hunza. The last runs westward and south-westward for
about 200 miles to the Dorah pass (14,800 feet), separating the valleys
which drain into the Indus from the head waters of the Oxus, and Hunza
and Gilgit in Kashmír and Chitrál in British India from the Afghán
province of Wakhan. The highest point in the main axis, Sad Istragh
(24,171 feet), is in this section. But the finest mountain scenery in
the Hindu Kush is in the great spurs it thrusts out southwards to flank
the glens which feed the Gilgit and Chitrál rivers. Tirach Mír towers
above Chitrál to a height of 25,426 feet. From Tibet to the Dorah pass
the northern frontier of India is impregnable. It is pierced by one or
two difficult trade routes strewn with the bones of pack animals, but no
large army has ever marched across it for the invasion of India. West of
the Dorah pass the general level of the Hindu Kush is a good deal lower
than that of its eastern section. The vital point in the defences of
India in this quarter lies near Charikár to the north of Kábul, where
the chain thins out, and three practicable passes debouch on the valley
of the Kábul river. It is this fact that gives the town of Kábul its
great strategic importance. The highest of the three passes, the Kaoshan
or Hindu Kush (dead Hindu), crosses the chain at an elevation of 14,340
feet. It took its own name from the fate that befel a Hindu army when
attempting to cross it, and has handed it on to the whole range. It is
the pass which the armies of Alexander and Bábar used. The historical
road for the invasion of India on this side has been by Charikár and the
valley of the Kábul river to its junction with the Kunar below
Jalálábád, thence up the Kunar valley and over one of the practicable
passes which connect its eastern watershed with the Panjkora and Swát
river valleys, whence the descent on Pesháwar is easy. This is the route
by which Alexander led the wing of the Grecian army which he commanded
in person, and the one followed by Bábar in 1518-19. Like Alexander,
Bábar fought his way through Bajaur, and crossed the Indus above Attock.
[Illustration: Fig. 10. The Khaibar Road.]
~The Khaibar.~--A British force advancing on Kábul from Pesháwar has never
marched by the Kunar and Kábul valley route. It has always taken the
Khaibar road, which only follows the Kabul river for less than one-third
of the 170 miles which separate Pesháwar from the Amir's capital. The
military road from Pesháwar to Landikhána lies far to the south of the
river, from which it is shut off by difficult and rugged country held by
the Mohmands.
~Safed Koh.~--From Landikhána the political boundary runs south-west to
the Safed Koh (white mountain) and is continued westwards along that
range to the Paiwar Kotal or pass (8450 feet). The Safed Koh forms the
watershed of the Kábul and Kurram rivers. It is a fine pine clad chain
with a general level of 12,000 feet, and its skyline is rarely free from
snow. It culminates in the west near Paiwar Kotal in Sikarám (15,620
feet). To the west of the Pesháwar and Kohát districts is a tangle of
hills and valleys formed by outlying spurs of the Safed Koh. This
difficult country is in the occupation of Afrídís and Orakzais, who are
under our political control.
~The Kurram Valley.~--The line of advance into Afghánistán through the
Kurram valley is easy, and Lord Roberts used it when he marched towards
Kábul in 1898. After the war we annexed the valley, leaving however the
head waters of the Kurram in Afghán territory. The road to Kábul leaves
the river far to the south before it crosses our frontier at Paiwar
Kotal.
~Wazíristán Hills.~--Between the Kurram valley and the Gomal river is a
large block of very rough mountainous country known as Wazíristán from
the turbulent clan which occupies it. In the north it is drained by the
Tochí. Westwards of the Tochí valley the country rises into lofty
mountains. The upper waters of the Tochí and its affluents drain two
fine glens known as Birmal and Shawal to the west of the country of the
Mahsud Wazírs. The Tochí valley is the direct route from India to
Ghazní, and nine centuries ago, when that decayed town was the capital
of a powerful kingdom, it must often have heard the tramp of armed men.
The loftiest peaks in Wazíristán, Shuidár (11,000 feet) and Pírghal
(11,600 feet), overhang Birmal. Further south, Wána, our post in
south-west Wazíristán, overlooks from its plateau the Gomal valley.
~The Gomal Pass as a trade route.~--East of Kajúrí Kach the Gomal flows
through tribal territory to the Gomal pass from which it debouches into
the plains of the Dera Ismail Khán district. "The Gomal route is the
oldest of all trade routes. Down it there yearly pours a succession of
_káfilas_ (caravans) led and followed up by thousands of well-armed
Pathán traders, called Powindahs, from the plains of Afghánistán to
India. The Powindahs mostly belong to the Ghilzai tribes, and are not
therefore true Afgháns[1]. Leaving their women and children encamped
within British territory on our border, and their arms in the keeping of
our frontier political officials, the Powindah makes his way southwards
with his camel loads of fruit and silk, bales of camel and goat hair or
sheepskin goods, carpets and other merchandise from Kábul and Bokhára,
and conveys himself through the length and breadth of the Indian
peninsula.... He returns yearly to the cool summits of the Afghán hills
and the open grassy plains, where his countless flocks of sheep and
camels are scattered for the summer grazing" (Holdich's _India_, pp.
80-81).
~Physical features of hilly country between Pesháwar and the Gomal
river.~--The physical features of the hill country between Pesháwar and
the Gomal pass may best be described in the words of Sir Thomas Holdich:
"Natural landscape beauty, indeed, may here be measured to a
certain extent by altitude. The low ranges of sun-scorched,
blackened ridge and furrow formation which form the approaches to
the higher altitudes of the Afghán upland, and which are almost as
regularly laid out by the hand of nature in some parts of the
frontier as are the parallels ... of the engineer who is besieging
a fortress--these are by no means 'things of beauty,' and it is
this class of formation and this form of barren desolation that is
most familiar to the frontier officer.... Shades of delicate purple
and grey will not make up for the absence of the living green of
vegetation.... But with higher altitudes a cooler climate and
snow-fed soil is found, and as soon as vegetation grasps a
root-hold there is the beginning of fine scenery. The upper
pine-covered slopes of the Safed Koh are as picturesque as those of
the Swiss Alps; they are crowned by peaks whose wonderful altitudes
are frozen beyond the possibility of vegetation, and are usually
covered with snow wherever snow can lie. In Wazíristán, hidden away
in the higher recesses of its great mountains, are many valleys of
great natural beauty, where we find the spreading poplar and the
ilex in all the robust growth of an indigenous flora.... Among the
minor valleys Birmal perhaps takes precedence by right of its
natural beauty. Here are stretches of park-like scenery where
grass-covered slopes are dotted with clumps of _deodár_ and pine
and intersected with rivulets hidden in banks of fern; soft green
glades open out to view from every turn in the folds of the hills,
and above them the silent watch towers of Pírghal and Shuidár ...
look down from their snow-clad heights across the Afghán uplands to
the hills beyond Ghazní." (Holdich's _India_, pp. 81-82.)
~The Sulimán Range.~--A well-marked mountain chain runs from the Gomal to
the extreme south-west corner of the Dera Ghází Khán district where the
borders of Biluchistán, Sind, and the Panjáb meet. It culminates forty
miles south of the Gomal in the fine Kaisargarh mountain (11,295 feet),
which is a very conspicuous object from the plains of the Deraját. On
the side of Kaisargarh there is a shrine called Takht i Sulimán or
Throne of Solomon, and this is the name by which Englishmen usually know
the mountain, and which has been passed on to the whole range.
Proceeding southwards the general elevation of the chain drops
steadily. But Fort Munro, the hill station of the Dera Ghází Khán
district, 200 miles south of the Takht, still stands 6300 feet above sea
level, and it looks across at the fine peak of Ekbhai, which is more
than 1000 feet higher. In the south of the Dera Ghází Khán district the
general level of the chain is low, arid the Giandári hill, though only
4160 feet above the sea, stands out conspicuously. Finally near where
the three jurisdictions meet the hills melt into the Kachh Gandáva
plain. Sir Thomas Holdich's description of the rugged Pathán hills
applies also to the Sulimán range. Kaisargarh is a fine limestone
mountain crowned by a forest of the edible _chilgoza_ pine. But the
ordinary tree growth, where found at all, is of a much humbler kind,
consisting of gnarled olives and dwarf palms.
~Passes and torrents in Sulimán Hills.~--The drainage of the western
slopes of the Sulimán range finding no exit on that side has had to wear
out ways for itself towards the plains which lie between the foot of the
hills and the Indus. This is the explanation of the large number of
passes, about one hundred, which lead from the plains into the Sulimán
hills. The chief from north to south are the Vehoa, the Sangarh, the
Khair, the Kahá, the Cháchar, and the Sirí, called from the torrents
which flow through them to the plains. There is an easy route through
the Cháchar to Biluchistán. But unfortunately the water of the torrent
is brackish.
~Sub Himálaya or Siwáliks.~--In its lowest ridges the Himálaya drops to a
height of about 5000 feet. But the traveller to any of the summer
resorts in the mountains passes through a zone of lower hills
interspersed sometimes with valleys or "duns." These consist of Tertiary
sandstones, clays, and boulder conglomerates, the débris in fact which
the Himálaya has dropped in the course of ages. To this group of hills
and valleys the general name of Siwáliks is given. East of the Jhelam it
includes the Náhan hills to the north of Ambála, the low hills of
Kángra, Hoshyárpur, Gurdáspur, and Jammu, and the Pábbí hills in Gujrát.
But it is to the west of the Jhelam that the system has its greatest
extension. Practically the whole of the soil of the plains of the
Attock, Ráwalpindi, and Jhelam districts consists of disintegrated
Siwálik sandstone, and differs widely in appearance and agricultural
quality from the alluvium of the true Panjáb plains. The low hills of
these districts belong to the same system, but the Salt Range is only in
part Siwálik. Altogether Siwálik deposits in the Panjáb cover an area of
13,000 square miles. Beyond the Indus the hills of the Kohát district
and a part of the Sulimán range are of Tertiary age.
~The Great Panjáb Plain.~--The passage from the highlands to the plains is
as a rule abrupt, and the contrast between the two is extraordinary.
This is true without qualification of the tract between the Jamna and
the Jhelam. It is equally true of British districts west of the Jhelam
and south of the Salt Range and of lines drawn from Kálabágh on the west
bank of the Indus southwards to Paniála and thence north-west through
the Pezu pass to the Wazíristán hills. In all that vast plain, if we
except the insignificant hills in the extreme south-west of the province
ending to the north in the historic ridge at Delhi, some hillocks of
gneiss near Toshám in Hissár, and the curious little isolated rocks at
Kirána, Chiniot, and Sángla near the Chenáb and Jhelam, the only
eminences are petty ridges of windblown sand and the "_thehs_" or mounds
which represent the accumulated débris of ancient village sites. At the
end of the Jurassic period and later this great plain was part of a sea
bed. Far removed as the Indian ocean now is the height above sea level
of the Panjáb plain east of the Jhelam is nowhere above 1000 feet. Delhi
and Lahore are both just above the 700 feet line. The hills mentioned
above are humble time-worn outliers of the very ancient Aravalli system,
to which the hills of Rájputána belong. Kirána and Sángla were already
of enormous age, when they were islands washed by the waves of the
Tertiary sea. A description of the different parts of the vast Panjáb
plain, its great stretches of firm loam, and its tracts of sand and sand
hills, which the casual observer might regard as pure desert, will be
given in the paragraphs devoted to the different districts.
~The Salt Range.~--The tract west of the Jhelam, and bounded on the south
by the Salt Range cis-Indus, and trans-Indus by the lines mentioned
above, is of a more varied character. Time worn though the Salt Range
has become by the waste of ages, it still rises at Sakesar, near its
western extremity, to a height of 5000 feet. The eastern part of the
range is mostly in the Jhelam district, and there the highest point is
Chail (3700 feet). The hill of Tilla (3242 feet), which is a marked
feature of the landscape looking westwards from Jhelam cantonment, is on
a spur running north-east from the main chain. The Salt Range is poorly
wooded, the dwarf acacia or _phuláhí_ (Acacia modesta), the olive, and
the _sanattha_ shrub (Dodonea viscosa) are the commonest species. But
these jagged and arid hills include some not infertile valleys, every
inch of which is put under crop by the crowded population. To geologists
the range is of special interest, including as it does at one end of the
scale Cambrian beds of enormous antiquity and at the other rocks of
Tertiary age. Embedded in the Cambrian strata there are great deposits
of rock salt at Kheora, where the Mayo mine is situated. At Kálabágh
the Salt Range reappears on the far side of the Indus. Here the salt
comes to the surface, and its jagged pinnacles present a remarkable
appearance.
~Country north of the Salt Range.~--The country to the north of the Salt
Range included in the districts of Jhelam, Ráwalpindí, and Attock is
often ravine-bitten and seamed with the white sandy beds of torrents.
Generally speaking it is an arid precarious tract, but there are fertile
stretches which will be mentioned in the descriptions of the districts.
The general height of the plains north of the Salt Range is from 1000
feet to 2000 feet above sea level. The rise between Lahore and
Ráwalpindí is just over a thousand feet. Low hills usually form a
feature of the landscape, pleasing at a distance or when softened by the
evening light, but bare and jagged on a nearer view. The chief hills are
the Márgalla range between Hazára and Ráwalpindí, the Kálachitta and the
Khairimurat hills running east and west through Attock and the very dry
and broken Narrara hills on the right bank of the Indus in the same
district. Between the Márgalla and Kálachitta hills is the Márgalla pass
on the main road from Ráwalpindí to the passage of the Indus at Attock,
and therefore a position of considerable strategical importance. The
Kálachitta (black and white) chain is so called because the north side
is formed of nummulitic limestone and the south mainly of a dark purple
sandstone. The best tree-growth is therefore on the north side.
~Pesháwar, Kohát, and Bannu.~--Across the Indus the Pesháwar and Bannu
districts are basins ringed with hills and drained respectively by the
Kábul and Kurram rivers with their affluents. Between these two basins
lies the maze of bare broken hills and valleys which make up the Kohát
district. The cantonment of Kohát is 1700 feet above sea level and no
hill in the district reaches 5000 feet. Near the Kohát border in the
south-west of the Pesháwar district are the Khattak hills, the
culmination of which at Ghaibana Sir has a height of 5136 feet, and the
military sanitarium of Cherát in the same chain is 600 feet lower. On
the east the Maidáni hills part Bannu from Isakhel, the trans-Indus
_tahsíl_ of Mianwáli, and on the south the Marwat hills divide it from
Dera Ismail Khán. Both are humble ranges. The highest point in the
Marwat hills is Shekhbudín, a bare and dry limestone rock rising to an
elevation of over 4500 feet.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: They are held to be of Turkish origin.]