Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/624

572 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES under the administrative charge of the lieutenant-governor at Allahabad, but in respect of its land and courts it still remains a distinct chief-commissionership. With this ex ception, the North-Western Provinces include the whole upper portion of the Gangetic basin from the Himalayas and the Punjab plain to the Vindhyan plateau and the low -lying rice -fields of Bengal. Taken as a whole, the lieutenant- governorship consists of the richest wheat-bear ing country in India. It contains many of the most famous cities of Indian history and is studded with thriving villages, interspersed at distances with large commercial towns. Except during the hot months, when the crops are off the fields, the general aspect is that of a verdant and well-tilled but monotonous plain, merging into hilly or mountainous country at the extreme northern and southern edges of the basin. The extreme north-western or Himalayan region comprises the native state of Garhwal, Avith the British districts of Dehra Dun, Garhwal, and Kumaun. The economic value of this mountainous tract is confined to the growth of tea in Kumaun and the export of forest produce. South of the Himalayas, from which it is separated by valleys or dans, is the Siwalik range, which slopes down to the fruit ful plain of the Doab (two waters), a large irregular horn- shaped tongue of land enclosed between the Ganges and Jumna. The great boundary rivers flow through low-lying valleys fertilized by their overflow or percolation, while a high bank leads up to the central upland, which, though naturally dry and unproductive except where irrigated by wells, has been transformed into an almost unbroken sheet of cultivation by various canals and their distributaries. This favoured inter-fluvial region may be fitly regarded as the granary of upper India. North of the Ganges, and enclosed between that river and the Himalayas and Oudh, lies the triangular plain of Rohilkhand. This tract presents the same general features as the Gangetic valley, varied by the damp and pestilential submontane region of the Tarai on the north-east, at the foot of the Kumaun hills. South of the Jumna is the poor and backward region of Bundel- khand, comprising the districts of Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Hamirpur, and Banda, besides several petty native states under the administrative control of the Government of India. The soil is generally rocky and unfertile, and the population impoverished, scanty, and ignorant. The south ernmost portion of Bundelkhand is much cut up by spurs of sandstone and granite hills, running down from the Vind hyan system ; but the northern half near the Jumna has a somewhat richer soil, and comes nearer in character to the plain of the Doab. Below the junction of the Ganges and the Jumna at Allahabad the country begins to assume the appearance of the Bengal plains, and also once more expands northwards to the foot of the Nepal Himalayas. This tract consists of three portions, separated by the Ganges and the Gogra. The division south of the Ganges comprises portions of Allahabad, Benares, and Ghazipur, together with the whole of Mirzapur, and in general features somewhat resembles Bundelkhand, but the lowlands along the river bank are more fertile. The triangular tract between the Ganges and the Gogra and the boundary of Oudh is the most fertile corner of the Gangetic plain, and contains the densest population. It comprises part of AllahAbad, Jaunpur, parts of Benares and Ghazipur, and the whole of Azamgarh. The trans-Gogra region, com prising Basti and Gorakhpur districts, presents a wilder, submontane appearance. But even here cultivation has widely extended, and the general aspect is that of a well- tilled and verdant plain. Besides the three great rivers the Ganges, Jumna, and Gogra there are the following secondary streams, each with numerous minor tributaries : the East and West Kali and the Hindan flow through the Doab ; the Chambal intersects the trans -Jumna tract; in Bundelkhand the principal streams are the Betwa and the Ken ; the Ram- ganga, rising in Garhwal, pursues a very tortuous course through Rohilkhand ; the Gumti enters the Provinces from Oudh, and flows past Jaunpur to join the Ganges ; the trans-Gogra region is divided into two nearly equal parts by the Rapti. All the drainage of the country falls directly or indirectly into the Ganges. Climate, &c. The climate of the North- Western Provinces as a ivhole may be classed as hot and dry. The Himalayan districts are, of course, cool, and have a much greater rainfall than the plains. They are succeeded by a broad submontane belt, the Tarai, which is rendered moist by the mountain torrents, and is covered by forest from end to end. This region bears a singularly bad reputation as the most unhealthy in all India, and in many parts only the acclimatized aborigines can withstand its deadly malaria. The plain country is generally warm and dry, the heat becoming more op pressive as the general level of the country sinks towards Allahabad and Benares, or among the hills of Bundelkhand. The monthly temperature of twelve stations in 1881-82 was as follows : maxi mum, 112 Fahr. ; minimum, 40 l Fahr. ; general mean, 77 8 Fahr. The maximum was 82 at Chakrata in Dehra Dun, 109 in Meerut, 114 in Allahabad, and 116 in Jhansi ; the minimum was 28 at Chakrata, 35 at Meerut, 41 at Allahabad, and 44 at Jhansi. The general mean was 57 7 at Chakrata, 76 8 at Meerut, 78 4 at Allahabad, 78 8 at Benares, and 79 "1 at Jhansi. The total rain fall during the same year amounted to 54 03 inches at Chakrata, 97-49 at Dehra, 29 63 at Meerut, 35 "43 at Bareli, 34-01 at Allaha bad, 33 77 at Benares, and 52 62 at Jhansi. The chief disease is fever, to which a large proportion of deaths are due. Population. The North-Western Provinces contain a denser population than any country of Europe, excepting Belgium and England. The census of 1881 returned the population of the Brit ish districts at 32,720,128 (males 17,060,901, females 15,659,227), distributed among 81,274 villages and towns. Including the two attached native states of Garhwal and Rampur, the area amounted to 86,983 square miles, and the population to 33,461,878. The following table exhibits the area (in square miles) and population of each district and state separately (exclusive of Oudh). Division. District. Area. Popula tion. Division. District. Area. Popula tion. Meerut Dehra Dim 1193 144,070 Jhansi . . Jalaun . . 1469 418,142 Saharan- 2221 979,544 Jhansi . . 1567 333,227 pur Lalitpur. . 1947 249,088 Muzaffar- 1656 758,444 Allaha Cawnpur 2370 1,181,396 nagar bad Fatehpur 1639 683,745 Meerut . . 2379 1,313,137 Banda. . . . 3061 698,608 Buland- 1915 924,822 Allahabad 2833 1,474,106 shahr Hamirpur 2288 507,337 Aligarh . . 1955 1,021,187 Jaunpur. . 1554 1,209,663 Rohil Biinaur . . 1868 721,450 Benares Azamgarh 2147 1,604,654 khand : Murada- 2-2S-2 1,155,173 Mirzapur 5224 1,136,796 i bad Benares . . 998 892,654 Budaun . . 2002 906,451 Ghazipur 1473 1,014,099 Bai-eli 1614 1,030,936 Gorakh 4598 2,617,120 Shahja 1746 856,946 pur hanpur Basti 2753 1,630,612 Pilibhit . . 1372 451,601 Ballia .... 1144 924,763 Agra . . Muttra ..; 1453 671,690 Kumaun Almora . . 6000 493,641 Agra .... 1850 974,656 Garhwal . . 5500 345,629 Farrukha- 1719 907,608 Tarai .... 938 206,993 bad Garhwal or Tehri 4180 199,836 Mainpuri 1697 801,216 (native state) Eta wah . . 1694 722,371 Rampur (native 945 541,914 Etah .... 1739 756,523 state) Mohammedans muster strongest in the northern divisions of Meerut and Rohilkhand, where they number 2,327,620. In Benares, Allahabad, Agra, and Kumaun divisions they form a percentage respectively of 10 7, 9 5, 8 7, and 8 4 of the popula tion. Many of the descendants of converts forced to embrace Islam at the sword s point retain several Hindu customs and adhere to purely Hindu observances and ceremonies. Most of the people are gathered into small villages. There are, however, no fewer than 238 towns with a population exceeding 5000, and containing an aggregate of 3,513,107 inhabitants. No other part of India contains so large a proportion of celebrated cities, though recent changes have made over Delhi, the most famous of all, to the adjacent province of the Punjab. Thirteen towns contained in 1872 a population exceeding 50,000 namely, (1) Benares, 199,700; (2) Agra, 160,203; (3) Cawnpur, 155,444; (4) Allahabad, 148,547; (5) Bareli (Bareilly), 113,417; (6) Meerut, 99,565; (7) Shahjahanpur, 74,830; (8) Muradabad, 67,387; (9) Farrukhabad, 62,437; (10) Kotl (Aligarh), 61,730; (11) Saharan- pur, 59,194 ; (12) Gorakhpur, 57,922 ; and (13) Mirzapur, 56,378. Eighteen towns contain a population of between 20,000 and 50,000. The other places of interest in the provinces are the hill sanataria