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MURREE HILLS-MURSHIDABAD. Murree Hills. — Range in Ráwal Pindi District, Punjab, taking their name from the sanitarium which crowns one of their principal ridges; situated between 33° 53' 30" and 33° 54' 30" n. lat., and between 73° 25' 15" and 73° 26' 30" E. long. They form a series of lateral spurs of the Himalayan system, running down from the main Kashmir (Cashmere) and Hazárá chain at right angles towards the plains, with a general direction from north-east to south-west. The loftiest peaks, behind the sanitarium of Murree, attain a height of 10,000 feet. Thence they stretch down to the Murree ridge itself, whose highest portion, the Kashmir Point, has an elevation of 7517 feet above sea level. The houses of European residents cover the space of 34 miles to Pindi Point, 7266 feet in height. Farther south, the hills change in aspect. The rich and varied scenery of Murree, with its pine-clad mountains, deep glens, and distant glimpses of the snowy range, gives place to a less grand but perhaps more picturesque and romantic country, consisting of angular hills, divided by broader and cultivated valleys, with hamlets perched on projecting spurs or hidden in nooks upon the hill-side, while the ruined castles at their summits recall the former greatness of some Ghakkar or Sikh chieftain. Still farther south, the trees yield to brushwood, the hills grow tane and uniform; and at length, near the borders of Jehlam (Jhelum) District, only a narrow line of upland separates the valley of the Jehlam river from the great alluvial plain of the Punjab. See also ante, MURREE Tahsil, which necessarily covers part of the same ground as the present article.
Mursán. — Town in Aligarh District, North-Western Provinces ; situated in lat. 27° 34' 40" N., and long. 77° 59' E., on the Muttra (Mathura) road, 7 miles west of Háthras (Hattras), and 24 south-west of Aligarh town. Population (1881) 4708. Residence of a family of Ját Rájás, whose present representative is Rájá Ghansyam Singh, grandson of the late Rájá Tikam Singii, C.S.I. Fort, dismantled in 1817. Agricultural and rather neglected town. Two schools, police station, post-office,
Murshidábád (Maksudábúd or Muxadábád).—British District in the Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal, lying between 23° 43' 15" and 24° 52' N. lat., and between 87° 43' and 88° 47' E. long. It forms the north-western corner of the Presidency Division, and is bordered along its entire frontier from north to south-east by the main stream of the Ganges, locally known as the Padma, separating it from Maldal and Rájshahi District; on the south by Birbhúm; and on the west by the Santál Parganás. The area was returned in 1881 at 2144 square miles; and the population at 1,226,790 persons. The administrative leadquarters are at BARHAMPUR, but MURSHIDABAD City is the most populous place in the District.
