THAR and Parkar, a British district in the east of Sind, lying between lat. 24° 13' and 26° 15' N., and between long. 68° 51' and 71° 8' E. Area,. 12,729 square miles ; population (1872), 180,761y Or 14 to the square mile. It is bounded on the north by Ithairpur state ; on the east by the states of J eysulmir, Malani, Jodhpur, and l'alanpur ; on tho south by the Runn of Cutch ; and on the west by Hyderabad. Tho Pat, or plain, its western part, Hue 50 to 100 feet above the Sind plain. The Thar or desert portion consists of a tmct of sandhills, which present the appearance of waves running north-east and south-west, and tube com posed of a fine sand. S.E. of the Thar is the Parlor tract. The peninsula of Parkar in its extreme S.E. juts into the Runn of Cutch. It is level, except in the immediate vicinity of the town of Nagar Parkar, where there aro the Karunjhar IliIls, composed mostly of syenito rock. It has hilly rocky ranges rising 350 feet above the surrounding level. There are sand hills also in this portion of the district ; but towards the east ithey merge into a large open plain of stiff clay, through which, in places, lime stone occasionally crops out.
The number of Musalman is returned as 96,604, and of Hindus, 62,500 ; the Christian commun ity nuinbers 35 ; and Koli, Mengwar, Rahtor, and others, 21,622. The Soda tribe, formerly dominant in Thar and Parkar, are of Rajput origin, and martial in character. The Khosa are fine, robust, martial men, inured to fatigue and hard fare. They are bmve and enterprising, but
improvident. The Udejas came originally from Sind ; they are a fine, athletic race, well-behaved, and have turned their attention to agricultural pursuits. The Bhils rank very low in the social scale, and are much addicted to theft. The lan guage is a mixture of Sindi and Kachi ; for merly, when Thar and Parkar was under the administration of the Political Agent at Cutch, all written correspondence was carried on in the Gujerati language.
Travelling in the Thar or desert portion of the district is very tedious and difficult, owing. to the sandhills which have constantly to be crossed. The climate of Thar and Parka'. is somewhat similar to that of Cutch (ICach), and is subject to great variations of temperature, being exces sively hot in the slimmer, and very cold in the winter, the cold increasing as tho sandhills are approached.
Snakes are very common, especially in the hot season. The wild hog, black partridge, and water-fowl are only met with in the Nam tract. The gor-khar or wild ass frequents the Parkar, and the hymna and lynx, the Thar. The desert ponies are hardy and well made. Camels and horned cattle are bred extensively in the desert ; large herds of tho latter are annually driven to Gujerat for sale. Thareli, a dialect of Siudi, is spoken in the desert.—Imp. Gaz.