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Robert Walpole to the Tower in 1712, Pulteney championed
his cause in the House of Commons and joined with the
leading Whigs in visiting him in his prison-chamber. For
these acts he was duly rewarded on the accession of George
I. In the first ministry of the new king he held the post
of secretary of war, a post which in the previous reign had
been conferred upon St John, Walpole, and Granville suc-
cessively, and when the committee of secrecy on the Utrecht
treaty was formed the list included the name of William
Pulteney. Two years later (6th July 1716) he became
one of the privy council. In the following year the Whig
On
ministry was rent in twain by internal dissension.
the proposition of the Government for granting a supply
against Sweden the friends of Lord Townshend and Sir
Robert Walpole voted against the administration, which
only escaped defeat by a majority of four. Townshend
was immediately dismissed from his post of lord-lieutenant
of Ireland, and Walpole at once resigned his places, and
amongst the Whigs who followed him in his retirement was
Pulteney. Devotion like this merited some signal mark of
favour on the return to power of the displaced ministers;
yet, when the crash of the South Sea Company restored
Walpole to the highest position of authority, all that he
offered to Pulteney was a peerage, a distinction which
entailed the misfortune of banishment from the House
where his faculties found their highest opportunities for
display. The offer was rejected, but in 1723 Pulteney
stooped to accept the lucrative but insignificant post of
cofferer of the household. In this obscure position he was
content for some time to await the future; but when he
found himself neglected he broke out into sarcasms on the
civil list and in 1725 was dismissed from his sinecure.
From the day of his dismissal to that of his ultimate tri-
umph Pulteney remained in opposition, and, although Sir
Robert Walpole attempted on his quarrel with Townshend
to conciliate him, all his overtures were spurned. Pul-
teney's resentment was not confined to his speeches in
parliament. With Bolingbroke he set on foot the well-
known periodical called The Craftsman, and in its pages
the minister was incessantly denounced for many years.
The war of pamphlets raged without ceasing. Lord Hervey
published an attack on the Craftsman, and Pulteney, either
openly or behind the person of Amhurst, defended its strict-
ures of the minister. Whether the question at issue was
the civil list, the excise, the income of the prince of Wales,
or the state of domestic affairs Pulteney was ready with a
pamphlet, and the minister or one of his friends came out
with a reply. For one of these efforts he was challenged
to a duel by Lord Hervey; for another he was struck off
the roll of privy councillors and dismissed from the com-
mission of the peace in several counties. In print Pulteney
was inferior to Bolingbroke alone among the antagonists of
Walpole, but in parliament, from which St John was ex-
cluded, he excelled all his comrades. When the sinking
fund was appropriated his voice was the foremost in
denunciation; when the excise scheme was stirring popular
feeling to its lowest depths the passion of the multitude
broke out in his oratory. Through Walpole's prudent
withdrawal of the latter measure the fall of his ministry
was averted, and dismay fell on the opposition leaders.
Bolingbroke withdrew to France and Pulteney sought con-
solation in foreign travel.

From the general election of 1734 until his elevation to the peerage Pulteney sat for Middlesex. For some years after this election the minister's assailants made little progress in their attack, but in 1738 the troubles with Spain supplied them with the opportunity which they desired. Walpole long argued for peace, but he was feebly supported in his own cabinet, and the frenzy of the people for war knew no bounds. In an evil moment for

his own reputation he consented to remain in office and
to gratify popular passion with a war against Spain. His
downfall was not long deferred. War was declared in
1739; a new parliament was summoned in the summer of
1741, and over the division on the election petitions the
ministry of Walpole fell to pieces. The task of forming
the new administration was after some delay entrusted
to his principal antagonist, whereupon Pulteney offered
the post of first lord of the treasury to that harmless poli-
tician the earl of Wilmington, being content himself, as
he had often declared his disdain for office, with a seat in
the cabinet coupled with a peerage. At this act popular
feeling broke out into open indignation. Exclamations
that the country was betrayed were heard on all sides,
and from the moment of his elevation to the Upper House
Pulteney's influence dwindled to nothing. Horace Walpole
asserts that when Pulteney wished to recall his desire for
a peerage it was forced upon him through the ex-minister's
advice by the king, and another chronicler of the times
records that when victor and vanquished met in the House
of Lords, the one as Lord Orford, the other as the earl of
Bath, the remark was made by the exulting Orford:
"Here we are, my lord, the two most insignificant fellows
in England." On 14th July 1742 Pulteney was created
baron Pulteney of Hedon, county York, viscount Pulteney
of Wrington, county Somerset, and earl of Bath, and a few
months previously he had been restored to his rank in the
privy council. On Wilmington's death in 1743 he made
application to the king for the post of first lord of the
treasury, only to find that it had been conferred on Henry
Pelham. For two days in 1746 he was at the head of a
ministry, but in " 48 hours, three quarters, seven minutes,
and eleven seconds" this short-lived ministry collapsed.
An occasional pamphlet and an unfrequent speech were
afterwards the sole fruits of Lord Bath's talents. His
praises whilst in retirement have been sung by two prelates
of the established church of England, Bishops Pearce and
Newton. He died on 7th July 1764, and was buried on
17th July in his own vault in Islip chapel, Westminster
Abbey.

Pulteney's eloquence was keen and incisive, sparkling with viva-
city and with allusions drawn from the literature of his own country
and of Rome. Of business he was never fond, and the loss in 1734
of his trusted friend John Merrill, who had supplied the qualities
which he lacked, was feelingly lamented by him in a letter to Swift.
His chief weakness was a passion for money, which was born with
him and grew as he grew.
As he left no surviving issue1 his vast
fortune went to William Johnstone of Dumfries (the third son of
Sir James Johnstone), who had married Frances, the daughter and
heiress of his cousin Daniel Pulteney, and had taken the name of
Pulteney. Lord Bath has left no trace of the possession of prac
tical statesmanship, but for nearly twenty years he led the opposi-
age, and had at last the triumph of driving his adversary from
tion in the House of Commons to the greatest minister of the
office.

PULTOWA. See POLTAVA.

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(W. P. C.)

PUMA, a name, probably of native origin, introduced into European literature by the early Spanish writers on South America (as Garcilaso de la Vega and Hernandez) for one of the largest feline animals of the New World. It is generally called "cougouar by the French, "leon" by the Spanish Americans, and "panther" by the AngloAmerican hunters of the United States. It is the Felis concolor of Linnæus and all subsequent systematic zoological authors. In general and anatomical characters, teeth, &c., it is a typical member of the genus Felis. (See MAMMALLA, vol. xv. p. 434.) Though often spoken of as the American lion, chiefly on account of its colour, it rather resembles the leopard of the Old World in size and habits. It usually measures from nose to root of tail about 40

worth, usually styled "a wealthy glass manufacturer and army con1 His wife, Anna Maria Gumley, daughter of John Gumley of Isletractor," died on 14th September 1758, aged sixty-four.

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inches, the tail being rather more than half that length. | grey colour, more rarely of a slaty blue or reddish tint. The head is rather small compared with that of other cats In composition it is allied to the obsidians, containing in and has no mane. The ears are large and rounded. The every 100 parts about 72 of silica, 17 of alumina, 2 of tail is cylindrical, with some bushy elongation of the hairs iron oxide, and 9 of soda and potash; and under the blownear the end, but not forming a distinct tuft as in the pipe it fuses to a white enamel. Its porosity renders it so lion. The general colour of all the upper parts and sides exceedingly light that in the dry condition it floats readily on the surface of water, sinking only when thoroughly saturated. Owing to this property it is found very widely diffused over the ocean-bed, even at points far removed from volcanic vents, considerable blocks having been brought up in the dredgings of the "Challenger" at all the points of its sea-bottom exploration. It is obtained for industrial purposes in the regions of recent volcanoes-the Lipari Islands, Iceland, Auvergne, Teneriffe, &c.-and is highly valued as a smoothing and polishing material for the metals, marble, horn, wood, bone, ivory, and leather. For some purposes it is reduced to the condition of a fine powder, and used either direct or spread upon paper or linen, as glass or emery-paper. A toilet soap is prepared containing a proportion of powdered pumice. An artificial pumice is made from a mixture of calcined and pulverized quartz and alumina baked in the form of a porous brick.

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PUMP. See MINING, vol. xvi. pp. 458, 459; PNEUMATICS, vol. xix. p. 246; and HYDROMECHANICS, vol. xii. p. 533 sq. PUMPKIN. See GOURD, vol. xi. p. 4, and HORTICULTURE, vol. xii. p. 283.

of the adult is a tawny yellowish brown, sometimes having
a grey or silvery shade, but in some individuals dark or
inclining to red. The lower parts of the body, inner sur-
face of the limbs, the throat, chin, and upper lip are dirty
white; the outside of the ears, particularly at their base,
and a patch on each side of the muzzle black; the end of
the tail dusky. The young, as is the case with the other
plain-coloured Felida, are, when born, spotted with dusky
brown and the tail ringed. These markings gradually fade,
and quite disappear before the animal becomes full-grown.
The puma has an exceedingly wide range of geographical
distribution, extending over a hundred degrees of latitude,
from Canada in the north to Patagonia in the south, and
was formerly pretty generally diffused in suitable localities
from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, but the advances
of civilization have in recent years considerably curtailed
the extent of the districts which it inhabits. In Central
America it is still common in the dense forests which
clothe the mountain ranges as high as 8000 or 9000 feet
above the sea-level, where the hideous sound of its howl-
ing is said to be almost continuously heard at night dur-
ing the breeding season. Though an expert climber, it is
by no means confined to wooded districts, being frequently
found in scrub and reeds along the banks of rivers, and
even in the open pampas and prairies. Its habits much
resemble those of the rest of the group to which it be-
longs; and, like the leopard, when it happens to come
within reach of an abundant and easy prey, as the sheep
or calves of an outlying farming station, it kills far more
than it can eat, either for the sake of the blood only or
to gratify its propensity for destruction. It rarely attacks
man, and, when pursued, escapes if possible by ascending
lofty trees. Several instances have occurred of pumas
becoming tame in captivity. Edmund Kean, the celebrated
actor, had one which followed him about like a dog. When
caressed they express their pleasure by purring like a

domestic cat.

PUNCHINELLO (It. Policinella, Pulcinella), the most popular of the puppets, is of Italian origin, though its history is by no means free from obscurity. The earlier etymologists sought to trace the name to various mythical individuals, by whom, it was alleged, the type was first furnished. Galiani adopts the theory which derives it from the name of Puccio d'Aniello, a vintager of Acerra near Naples, who, having by his wit and grotesque appearance vanquished some strolling comedians in their own sphere, was induced to join the troop, and whose place, by reason of his popularity, was supplied after his death by a masked actor who imitated his dress and manner. The claims of other individuals-Paolo Cinella, Polliceno, and Pulcinella, a Neapolitan dealer in fowls-have also found supporters, and the derivation of the name and character from some old mystery representing Pontius (O.E. Pownce; Fr. Ponce) Pilate and Judas, or the Jews, was formerly popular. It has even been suggested that the title is a modification of Tolu Kivéw as expressive of the restlessness which is characteristic of the puppet; and the assumption that the character was invariably of diminutive size has given rise to its reference to the word pollice, the thumb (cf. Däumling, Tom Thumb). The most plausible theory, however, regards the name in its Italian form as a diminutive of pulcino, fem. pulcina, a chicken. It is sometimes stated that, in consequence of the habit of using the word "chicken as a term of endearment, it came to mean "a little child," and hence "a puppet" (Skeat). But this again involves the assumption that the application of the name to the character was in some measure determined by the size of the puppets, whereas it would appear to have been transferred from the comic stage to the puppet show, and the Pulcinella of the stage was not necessarily a dwarf. The choice, therefore, seems to lie between the theory of Quadrio, that it was applied on account of the resemblance of the hooked nose to a beak, and that of Baretti, which ascribes its employment to the nasal squeak and timorous impotence of the original character. With respect to the development of the modern type, it has been assumed that the whole family of Italian maschere (Arlecchino, Brighetta, and the like) are modified survivals of the principal Oscan characters of the Atellana, and that Punchinello is the representative of Maccus, the fool or clown. In proof of

PUMICE, a highly porous light mineral substance of volcanic origin, resulting from the solidification of foam or scum formed by the escape of steam or gas on the surface of molten lava. It is principally found of a whitish or clear

XX.

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this it is urged that Acerra, the supposed residence of Puccio d'Aniello and the traditional source of the character, is in the neighbourhood of Aversa, the old Atella; and reference is also made to a bronze statue of Maccus, discovered at Rome in 1727, an engraving of which has been preserved in Ficoroni's Le Maschere Sceniche e le Figure Comiche d'Antichi Romani. But the resemblance of the statue to the puppet is scarcely to be termed a striking one, and the large nose and deformed figure are somewhat hazardous ground on which to base a theory, especially in view of the fact that such points of likeness as there are in it to the northern Punch are not to be found in the Neapolitan Pulcinella. It is possible that some relic of the old Ludi Osci, transmitted through the Vice of the mystery plays, is to be found in the character; but any direct descent from the Maccus of the Atellane seems precluded by the fact that, while there are traces of the gradual development of the northern Punch from the Neapolitan Pulcinella, the latter with its grey hat, white smock and trousers, masked face, and undistorted body is widely different from its alleged prototype. It seems necessary, therefore, to regard the Pulcinella as in large part a distinct creation of comparatively modern date. Prior to the 17th century there is no indication in the Italian burlesque poets of the existence of Pulcinella, though Riccoboni places the creation of the part before 1600,

Andrea Perrucci (1699) and Gimma assert with some show of authority that Silvio Fiorillo, a comedian named after his principal part Captain Matamoros (the Italian Miles Gloriosus), invented the Neapolitan Pulcinella. It was afterwards improved by Andrea Calcese, surnamed Ciuccio, who died of the plague in 1656, and who, according to Gimma, imitated in the character the peasants of Acerra. This would place the origin of the Italian Pulcin- | ella somewhere about the commencement of the 17th century, the original character appearing to have been that of a country clown, hook-nosed, shrill-voiced, cowardly, boastful, and often stupid, yet given at times to knavish tricks and shrewd sayings. In thorough accordance with this date, we find that the earliest known appearance of Polichinelle in France is at the commencement of the reign of Louis XIV., in the show of the puppet-playing dentist Jean Brioché. It might have been expected that the shrewder and wittier side of the character would most commend itself to the French mind, and there is good reason to believe that the Polichinelle of Brioché was neither a blunderer nor a fool. The puppet was almost immediately seized upon as the medium of political satire of the kind exemplified in the Letter of Polichinelle to Cardinal Mazarin (1649), and it is described in the Combat de Cyrano de Bergerac as a "petit Ésope de bois, remuant, tournant, virant, dansant, riant, parlant, petant" and as "cet hétéroclite marmouset, disons mieux, ce drolifique bossu." In this there appear signs of transformation, whether the importation to France took place before or after the alleged improvements of Calcese. The hunchback had been long associated in France with wit and laughter, and there are, therefore, some grounds for Magnin's theory that the northern Punch is of French origin, a Gallic type under an Italian name, though there does not seem to be sufficient reason for adopting his suggestion that Polichinelle was a burlesque portrait of Béarnais. The date of its introduction into England has been disputed, Payne Collier being of opinion that Punch and King William came together, a second theory suggesting an earlier origin with the Huguenot refugees. In view of its popularity in France prior to the Restoration, however, it would be strange if its migration had been so long delayed, and it is more than probable that it crossed the Channel in the

wake of the Royalists. Apart from the general references
by Pepys (1662) and by Evelyn (1667)-to an Italian
puppet-show at Covent Garden, the former makes men-
tion (1669) of some poor people who called their fat child
Punch, "that word being become a word of common use
for all that is thick and short." An allusion to "Punch-
inellos" is also to be found in Butler's satire on English
imitation of the French, and Aubrey speaks of "a Punch-
inello holding a dial" as one of the ornaments of Sir
Samuel Lely's house at Whitehall. But, though the puppet
did not travel in the train of William of Orange, allusions
to it become far more frequent after the Revolution of 1688,
and the skill of the Dutch in their treatment of puppet
mechanism may have enhanced its attractiveness. In 1703
it was introduced at Bartholomew Fair into a puppet play
of the creation of the world; in 1709 (Tatler, No. 16) it
was to be found in a representation of the Deluge, though
in a different part from that of the Momus Polichinelle of
Piron's Arlequin-Deucalion (1722); and in 1710 (Spectator,
No. 14) it is mentioned as a leading figure in Powell's
The alleged satire on
puppet-show at Covent Garden.
Robert Walpole, entitled A Second Tale of a Tub, or the
History of Robert Powel, the Puppet-Showman (1715),
furnishes some details of Punch performances, and has an
interesting frontispiece representing Powell with Punch
and his wife. The Judy (or Joan, as she appears to have
been sometimes called) is not of a specially grotesque
order, but the Punch is easily recognizable in all but the
features, which are of the normal puppet type. Other
allusions are to be found in Gay's Shepherd's Week-
Saturday (1714) and Swift's Dialogue between Mad Mulli-
nix and Timothy (1728). The older Punchinello was far
less restricted in his actions and circumstances than his
modern successor. He fought with allegorical figures
representing want and weariness as well as with his wife
and with the police, was on intimate terms with the
patriarchs and the seven champions of Christendom, sat
on the lap of the queen of Sheba, had kings and dukes
for his companions, and cheated the Inquisition as well as
the common hangman. Powell seems to have introduced a
trained pig which danced a minuet with Punch, and the
French have occasionally employed a cat in place of the
dog Toby, whose origin is somewhat uncertain. A typical
version of the modern play, with illustrations, was published
by Payne Collier and Cruikshank in 1828. (R. M. W.)
PUNCTUATION. See PALEOGRAPHY, vol. xviii. p.

163.

PUNJAB,1 the most northern province of British India. Geographically the region called by this name is the triangular tract of country of which the Indus and the Sutlej (Satlaj) to their confluence form two of the sides, the third being the lower Himálaya hills between these two rivers. The British province now includes a large extent of country outside these boundaries, on all three sides-beyond the Indus to the range of hills running parallel to it on the west; beyond the Sutlej eastward to the Jumna (Jamna) and southward to a distance of 60 miles below Delhi ; within the hills, a large highland tract on the east and another on the west, with the Kashmir and Chamba territories between. The British province stretches north and south from 35° 10′ N. lat. at the head of the hill district of Hazára to 27° 40' at the south end of the Gurgaon district, and east and west from 69° 36′ E. long. on the Déra Ghází Khán and Sind frontier to 78° 55′ on the Jumna. The length of the central line of communication across the province from Delhi to Peshawar by rail is 645 miles.

The name Punjab signifies "[country of] five rivers," Rivers. 1 Panjab, according to received modern spelling; but, as in other cases of important and familiar names, the old form is commonly retained.

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adjoining rivers. The country between the Sutlej and the Biás is called the Jalandar Doáb; it includes the districts Jalandar and Hushiarpur. The long strip between the Biás-Sutlej and the Rávi, containing the greater part of the Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Lahore, Montgomery, and Múltán districts, is called the Bárí Doáb. And Rechna Doáb is the tract between the Rávi and the Chináb, embracing the Sialkót and Gujranwála districts with the trans-Rávi portions of the districts of the Bárí Doáb. Chaj or Jach is the doáb between the Chináb and the Jhelum (Gujrát and Shahpur districts and part of Jhang), and Sind Sagar (Indus Sea) is the name of the large doáb between the

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the five rivers being the great tributaries of the INDUS (q.v.), namely, the Jhelum, Chináb, Rávi, Biás, and Sutlej.1 These are all rivers of large volume, but, on account of the great width of sandy channel in their passage through the plains, their changing courses, and shifting shoals, they are of very moderate value for steam navigation, though they all support a considerable boat-traffic. The Indus has a course of about 550 miles through the Punjab. The Jhelum enters the plains a little above the town of Jhelum. Thence it flows south-west about 200 miles to join the Chináb. The Chináb (called Chandrabhága in the hills, being formed by the union of the Chandra and the Bhága, both from the Bára Lácha Hills) enters the Punjab about 15 miles north of Sialkót. About 200 miles lower down it receives the Jhelum on the right, and about 60 miles farther the Rávi on the left. After a further course of about 120 miles it joins the Sutlej. The Rávi, after reaching the plains, follows a very winding course to its junction with the Chináb. A deserted channel runs generally parallel to the present river through part of the district of Montgomery. The Biás enters the Punjab in the Gurdáspur district, and has a course in the plains of nearly 100 miles to its junction with the Sutlej near Hari-ki-Patan. The Sutlej flows nearly 500 miles through the plains before it unites with the Chináb, which is the junction of the five tributaries. Thence the united rivers (sometimes called Panj-nad or "the five streams") flow in one channel about 50 miles to the Indus.

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Whilst the general name Punjab is applied to the whole | country of the five rivers, there are distinct names for each of the "doabs" (do, two; áb, water) or tracts between two The name first given by the Aryans after their immigration was Sapta Sindhú, "[land of] seven rivers," these being the five rivers of the modern Punjab with the addition of the Indus on the one side and of the Saraswati on the other. In the Vedic poems they are severally addressed as Sindhú, the Indus (the river); Vitasta, the Jhelum; Asikni, Chináb; Airavati and Marudvridha, Rávi; Vipása, Biás; Sutudri, Sutlej; and Saraswati, Sarsuti. It may be remarked that Sindhá itself means "river," and Saraswati, "having running water," and that each is applied as an epithet to other great rivers. The Saraswati, alone of the seven, is not now great. It is represented by a channel or channels, occupying the position assigned to the ancient much-praised stream, but now nearly dry for a great part of the year; for, unlike the others, it comes only from the lower hills, not from perpetual snows. The large body of water which it carries for a time in the rainy season never reaches the Indus, towards which it directs its course, but is lost in the desert lands of northern Rájputána and Bahawalpur. In writings of the 6th or 7th century B. C. the Saraswati is said to disappear and pass underground to join the Ganges and Jumna at Prág (Allahábád), which triple confluence received therefore the name Tribeni. The Saraswati dropped out of the enumeration of the rivers of the early Aryan settlement; and, when in later days the Indus, the country took its name Panchanada, and afterwards, in Persian form, Panjab.

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Jhelum and the Indus, including the Ráwal Pindí, Jhelum, and Muzaffargarh districts, with parts of Shahpur, Bannú, Déra Ismail Khán. The higher and drier parts of the doabs are called "bár." They are waste but not barren, scantily covered with low shrubs, capable, when watered, of being well cultivated. The bár is the great camelgrazing land. Large areas of the Muzaffargarh and Múltán districts are "thal," barren tracts of shifting sand. The middle part of the Bárí Doáb, in the Amritsar district, bears the distinctive name of Mánjha (middle) as the centre and headquarters of the Sikh nation, containing their two sacred tanks of Amritsar and Táran Táran, and a dense and fine population of Játs, Rajputs, and Gújars. The Malwa Sikhs, again, are those of the cis-Sutlej country.

Besides the great rivers, the distinguishing feature of Minor the Punjab, there are some others deserving of notice, rivers. The Cabul river joins the Indus above Attock after receiving, about 12 miles north-east of Peshawar, the Swát river, which enters British territory at Abazai. The Kunhår, from the Kashmir hills, flows down the Kaghan valley (the upper part of the Hazára district) and joins the Jhelum at Muzaffarábád. The Siran and the Dór in Hazára unite and near Torbéla run into the Indus, which

Area

below Attock also receives the Harro from Hazára. The Kurram, rising in Afghanistan and flowing through the Bannú district, falls into the Indus near Isa Khíl, and the Sohán, from the lower hills of Kashmir, joins it above Kálábágh. The Bimbar, from the Kashmir Hills, below the Pír Panjál Pass, runs into the Chináb near Wazírábád. The Dég, from the Jammú Hills, joins the Rávi near Gugaira. South of the Sutlej the Markanda, the Saraswati, the Gaggar, and the Chitang, from the lower hills of Sirmur, which are violent torrents during the rainy season but nearly dry at other times, flow towards the Indus, but never reach it, being lost in the sands of the Bikanír and Bahawalpur desert.

The area of the Punjab proper, the triangular tract of country between the Indus and the Sutlej, is about 62,000 square miles; the whole area of the British province is 106,632, and of the feudatory states 35,817, making a total of 142,449 square miles. This area is for the most Physical part a great alluvial plain. The north-east side of the features province is a belt of hill-country, the outer margin of the Himalayas, on which are the valuable hill-stations of Murree, Dalhousie, Dharmsala, Kassauli, Sabáthú, Dagshai, and Simla. In the Delhi and Gurgaon districts is the north end of the Aravali range. A part of the extremity of these hills became well known at the time of the siege of Delhi in 1857 under the name of the "Ridge," which was held by the British troops. Between the Jhelum and the Indus is the hilly region known by the general name of the Salt Range, containing the inexhaustible stores of rocksalt which have been worked for many centuries. The salt is dug from enormous caverns entered by narrow tunnels. The salt-hills are continued west of the Indus, where the salt is dug from open quarries. A double range of low hills runs south-westward from the Indus near the mouth of the Kurram. The part near the south end called Sheikh Budín (Sheikh Shaháb-uddín) is a useful sanatorium, though of no great height or great extent. The western boundary of the province is the fine range of the Sulimán Mountains, dividing the Punjab from Afghanistan. The British possessions do not extend beyond the base of the hills, which are occupied by very independent tribes. It is only within a short time past that any exact knowledge has been obtained of the interior of these hills, beyond the parts visited in the course of the numerous frontier expeditions for the punishment of inroads into British territory. A survey was made for the first time in 1883 of the fine mountain mass containing the snowy peak Takht-i-Sulimán (Solomon's throne) and its surroundings.

Mineral products.

Crops,

&c.

Besides the rock-salt the mineral products of the Punjab are not many. Limestone, good for building, is obtained at Chaniót on the Chináb and at a few other places. There are extensive alum-beds at Kálábágh on the Indus. A small quantity of coal is found in the Salt Range in disconnected beds, mostly at a considerable height above the plain, and not very accessible, the beds thinning out westwards from the Jhelum to the Indus. Petroleum is found in small quantities at a number of places in the Ráwal Pindí, Kohát, and Bannú districts, being gathered from the surface of pools or collected in shallow pits. It is used for making gas for the station of Rawal Pindí. In almost all parts of the Punjab there is "kankar," rough nodular limestone, commonly found in thick beds, a few feet below the surface of the ground, used for road metalling and burned for lime.

As in other parts of India, there are commonly two harvests in the year. The spring crops are wheat, barley, gram, various vegetables, oil-seeds, tobacco, and a little opium; the autumn crops, rice, millets, maize, pulses, cotton, indigo, and sugar-cane. Tea is now extensively

cultivated in the Kángra district. Flax has been produced successfully, but the cultivation has not been extended. Hops have been grown experimentally, for the Murree brewery, on neighbouring hills; the cultivation in Kashmir has been more encouraging. Potatoes are grown extensively on cleared areas on the hills. The Punjab produces freely many of the Indian fruits, but none of special excellence except the peaches of Peshawar. Grapes are grown in many of the Himalayan valleys, where the rain is not excessive, also at Peshawar; but they are inferior to those brought from Cabul.

The forest area of the Punjab consists of 4694 square Forests. miles reserved, under the management of the forest department, and 13,000 square miles under the district officers. The demarcation of protected and reserved forests is being extended. The wasteful destruction of trees is checked in the hill forests rented from native states by the British Government. The principal reserved forests are the deodár (Cedrus Deodara) and chíl (Pinus longifolia) tracts in the hills, the plantations of shisham (Dalbergia Sissu) and sál (Shorea robusta) in the plains, and the fuel rakhs or preserves (Acacia, Prosopis, &c.). The average nett surplus of forest income for the ten years 1875-85 was Rs.161,800. The rainfall in the Punjab varies greatly in different Climate. parts and from year to year. The maximum (126.55 inches in the year) is at Dharmsala, on the face of the high north wall of the Kángra valley; the minimum (5.96) is in the Muzaffargarh district. In a country so open and so far from the sea there are extremes of heat and cold. A temperature of 128° Fahr. in the shade has been recorded, and a winter temperature of 25° at sunrise is not infrequent. At Lahore, on the grass, the thermometer has been known to fall to 17°.

Of the whole area of British Punjab (106,632 square Cultivamiles) 36,755 square miles are cultivated and 64,263 un- tion. cultivated, the remaining 5614 being reckoned uncultivable. An area of 75,434 square miles (48,377,760 acres) is held by 33,020 village communities, formed of small proprietors having joint interests and joint responsibility for the land revenue, but cultivating each his own land. Among the Patháns of the trans-Indus districts the tribe and not the village community is in some cases the jointly responsible body. There are 3406 estates of larger proprietors, with a total area of 4,531,415 acres; and there are 10,216,872 acres of waste land, the property of the Government, of which less than one-half is capable of cultivation. The total area under wheat is seven millions of acres. is an increasing export of wheat, gram, rice, and oilseeds.

There

Irrigation for large areas is from canals and from reser- Irriga voirs, and for smaller areas from wells. The canals are of tion. two kinds, those carrying a permanent stream throughout the year, and those which fill only on the periodical rising of the rivers, the latter commonly known as "" inundation canals." There are only a few parts of the country presenting facilities for forming reservoirs, by closing the narrow outlets of small valleys and storing the accumulated rainfall. The old canals made by the Mohammedan rulers, of which the principal are Firóz's Canal from the Jumna and the Hasli Canal from the Rávi, have been improved or reconstructed by the British Government. The principal new canals are the Sirhind, drawn from the Sutlej near Rúpar, and irrigating parts of the native states of Patiala and Nabha as well as British territory; the Bárí Doab Canal from the Rávi; the Swát Canal, drawn from the Swát river at Abazai; and inundation canals in the districts of Firóz pur, Shahpur, Múltán, and the Déraját, from the Sutlej, the Jhelum, the Chináb, and the Indus. Water was admitted into the Sirhind Canal on 1st July 1882. Its branches are still under construction.

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