The rivers are liable to sudden rises. This rise will frequently take place in the course of a day or two, sometimes in a few hours. The Markanda, in the Ambala district, at one time of the year is like an ocean ; at another it will be a slender stream, hardly to be called a river. The Indus always contains a large body of water, but even this river is liable to become dammed up in the hills whence it rises ; the water then accumu lates, and, bursting at length its dams, comes down with terrible force. Once or twice these floods have occurred, giving only a few moments' notice by a sound as of distant thunder, and then coming on with a sweep that spread desolation for many miles.
The chief towns are Attock, Dehra-i-Ghazi Khan, Dehra-i-Ismail Khan, Jalandhar, Jhelum, Kaper talla, Lahore, Leia, Milian, Peshawur, The Panjab has also districts on both sides of the river Sutlej, designated Cis-Sutlej districts east of that river, and Trans-Sutlej states west of that river. In the Cis-Sutlej territory are the districts and towns of Firozpur, Sobraon, Kithul, Ludi ana, and Ambala. The Trans - Sutlej states are Hoshiarpur, Dharmsala, and Kangra.
Panjab is a largely manufacturing country, the value of the produce from looms and workshops being estimated in 1871-72 at £4,850,000. Their woollen manufactures are from the exquisitely soft fleeces of Rampur and Kerman, from sheep wool, and from goat and camel hair. Silk is obtained from Afghanistan, Yarkand, Bokhara, Bengal, and China, and manufactured at Amritsar, Lahore, Multan, Bahawulpur, and Jalandhar, and the manufactures valued at £150,000 a-year.
There are about half a million of weavers in Sialkot, Hoshiarpur, Amritsar, Ambala, and Jalandhar. Kyes, daryai, and other silk manufactures are exported chiefly to Amritsar, and Peshawur ; and kundla and gold lace work are made largely for local consumption and for export to Milian, Rawal Pin di, and Pesha wur. Amritsar town being the commercial capital of the Panjab proper, its trade is carried on with Bokhara, Kabul, Kashmir, Calcutta, Bombay, Sind, Rajputana, the N.1V. Provinces, and all the principal marts in the Panjab. Manufactures of pashmiva and silk goods give employment to large numbers of workmen. The pashmina goods are manufactured from the fine wool of Tibet, imported through Kashmir, and 4000 looms are engaged in this trade, each of which is worked by two men. The workmen are all Kashmir Muhammadan, and the manufacture is said to have been established since A.D. 1840. The most valuable articles are the Kashmir shawls. The silk manufacture has long been established at Lahore, and has spread from that place to Amrit sar, where it is now carried on to about an equal extent.
About half the population are engaged in agricultural pursuits. The most industrious are the Rain, Mali, Saini, Lubana, and Jat. The Rain are diligent, persevering men, and on good land will often sustain three or four successive crops of vegetables, which they produce largely in addition to the grain crops.
The Mali are chiefly gardeners.
The Saini occupy sub-mountain tracts, and grow sugar-cane largely. Their village lands are always in a high state of tillage.
The Lubana or Brinjara are to be found on some waste lands, and are careful and thrifty cultivators. They have many settlements along the right bank of the Ravi.
The Jat, about two millions in number, are conspicuous for their industry, and the wives cheerfully work along with their husbands in all field labour. They grow grain largely, and their well-worke•and well-fenced fields can always be distinguished from those of the Syud, Pathan, Brinjara, Brahman, Gujar, Rangar, and the Rajput, the last being the worst, for he considers ploughing beneath him, and will never hold the plough if he can get any Chamar or other low caste man to do it for him.
As a rule, the cultivators do not consume the wheat they produce, but keep it for sale, and subsist on the pulses, barley, and inferior grains.
The plain districts of the Panjab greatly re semble one another in their general physical features, the main difference consists in the fact that some are better irrigated than others, and that some include large tracts of sandy unproduct ive country, like the desert portion of Multan or Muzaffarnagar. The climate of such districts
is hot and sultry ; the amount of rain that falls is at its minimum, and cultivation is almost entirely dependent on canals and artificial irri gation. this respect no doubt these districts differ widely from the rich plains of the Jalandhar and Bari Doabs, where not only do the great rivers fertilize the soil, but the periodical rainy season seldom fails to yield an abundant-increase to the summer sown crops of the kharif. The climate is in general characterized by dryness and warmth ; little faiii falls except in those parts extending along the base of the Himalaya, and where the smith-west monsoon is partially felt. The face of the country presents every variety, from the most luxuriant cultivation to the most sandy deserts, and the wildest prairies of grass and brushwood. A traveller passing through those lines of communication which traverse the northern tracts, would imagine the Panjab to be the garden of India ; on the other hand, returning by the road which intersects the central tracts, he would suppose it to be a country not worth annexing. From the base of the hills southward, there stretches a strip of country from 50 to 80 miles broad, watered by mountain rivulets, and for fertility and agriculture unsurpassed in Northern India. In their downward course the rivers spread wealth and fruitfulness on either side, and their banks are enriched with alluvial deposits, and fringed with the finest cultivation. These tracts, though unadorned with trees, and Imre lieved by any picturesque features, are studded with well-peopled villages, are covered with two waving harvests iu the year, and are the .homes of a sturdy, industrious, and skilful peasantry. Within this tract are situated the sister capitals of Lahore and Amritsar, and most of the chief cities, such as Buttala, Sealkote, 'Wazirabad, Gujranwala, Ramnuggur, and Gujerat.
The sloping plain of the Panjab varies in eleva tion, from 600 to 2000 feet above the sea ; Lahore being but 900, and Jhelum about 1600. It de clines regularly to the south-western extremity. The soil of the doabs is of varied fertility •, gener ally, it is very sandy, but they are rendered highly productive by irrigation from the rivers which traverse these plains. The rich and fertile tracts that border on the great rivers of the Panjab, extending inland to the centres of the doabs as far as the fecundating influences of their waters are felt, yield annually an abundant harvest of grains of all kinds, and pulse, which form the staple articles of food to the great majority of the population.
The plains of the Panjab may be described as vast expanses of alluvial clay and loam, whose elementary constituents must once have been the same as now form the rocks of the huge ranges of mountains to the north. The principal con stituents that produce a variety in the nature of soils, and one which is very important in the Panjab island, in fact the main distinction of soils (apart from that of their containing or not containing kalr,' the efflorescent salt), is that the soil is sandy, as in many portions of districts it is, or that it is rich loam and clay.
The districts of Lahore, Gujranwala, Amritsar, Gujerat, Jalandhar, Ludiana, Ambala, Dchli, and Peshawur, are watered districts, whether irrigated by canals, wells, rivers, or abundance of rain, and their soils are chiefly alluvial.
In the Multan, Muzaffarnagar, Shalipur, or Gugaira districts, the soil is arid and sandy, they are not well watered, and the rainfall is small.
The country to the east of the Ilydaspes (Jhelum) is open and fertile, but is rugged to the west of that river, and sandy towards the junction of the five rivers.