GON
498
It has not been geologically explored ; but the surface throughout is a rich alluvial deposit, which is divided naturally into three great belts, known as the tarai, the uparhar, and the tarhar, the swamp, the- highland, and the wet lowlands. The first of these extends from the forest at the north, and its southern boundary is a line about two miles to the south of the Kapti, running through the towns of Balr^impur and Utraula. Its soil is generally a heavy clay, except in places where the rain-swollen mountain torrents which flow into the Rapti and Burhi RApti have flooded their neighbouring fields with a sandy deposit of debris from the hills. Water is near the surface ; but wells, except for drinking, are rare, the rains supplying all the irrigation that is required.
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are, -October and December rice, and oil seeds, of which commonest. A second crop of wheat or arhar is frequently raised in the fields which have just been cleared of their autumn produce, and yields an excellent result to the minimum of labour and expense.
The staple crops
lahi is the
The uparhar, which begins where the tarai ends, and extends south to a rough line drawn east and west about two miles below Gonda, is a slightly raised table-land, with water at a distance of between 15 and 25 feet from the surface. Irrigation is common, and the soil gives unusual facilities for the construction of cheap kachcha wells. The soil is generally a good dumat, with occasional patches of clay and the main crops, October rice, Indiancorn, arhar, gram, wheat and barley. Opium is grown with fair success. The tarhar extends upwards from the Gogra to the southern boundary of the uparhar. It lies very low, with water within a few feet from the surface, and irrigation, except for poppy, is generally considered as rather injurious than profitable. Where they are wanted, kachcha wells are dug at an expense of 12 annas or a rupee, and last on an average for two years. Both kinds of rice, Indian-corn, peas, arhar, wheat, poppy, and sugarcane, are generally cultivated. The soil is a light dumat, with an occasional excess All three belts are marvellously fertile, and though, perhaps out of sand. of respect for the conventional classification, about one per cent, is entered as unculturable, there is hardly an acre in the district which would not eventually reward patient labour. The vast tracts of barren saline efilorescence which are so common in the south of Oudh are quite unknown here.
The
chief rivers, beginning at the north, are the Bflrhi R^pti, the Rapti,
- ^® Suwawan, the Kuwana, the Bislihi, the Chamnai,
the Manwar, the Tirhi, the Sarju, and the Gogra. All these flow from north-west to south-east, and the Gogra and the Rapti are alone of any commercial importance, the first being navigable beyond the western frontier of the district throughout the year, the latter during the rains. Those in the centre of the district are shallow streams in the hot months, and are fringed in most places with a jungle of young sdl trees, mixed with mahua, and ending at the water's edge with a canebrake or line of jamun trees. Dangerous quicksands, covered with a green blanket of short grass, are exceedingly common along the edge of the water. The peculiarities of each stream will be treated of in greater detail in the appropriate articles. Eivera.
In appearance the district
is
a vast plain with very slight undulations.
