NORTII-II'ESTERN PROVINCES AND OUDII. 359 Himalayas. In Rohilkhand the Ohibar is about jo miles wide, with a fall of from 17 to 50 feet per mile, and is unsupplied with water, except in the rainy season. Wells cannot be dug, but crops are raised by means of canal irrigation. South of the Jumna, the poor and irregular region known as BuxDELKHAND rises upward froin the river bank to the edge of the Vindhyan plateau. This part of the Province is intersected by Native States; and isolated portions of the surrounding principalities lie in many places in the midst of British territory. The soil is generally rocky and unfertile, but considerable patches of rich black cotton soil are interspersed; the population is impoverished, scanty, and ignorant; the crops mainly depend on the amount and distribution of the annual rainfall; well-water lies far below the surface; and, as a whole, Bundelkhand may rank as the poorest and most backward region of the North-Western Provinces. It comprises the British Districts of JALAUN, JHANSI, LALITPUR, HAMIRPUR, and BANDA. The southernmost portion is much cut up by threc spurs of sandstone and granite hills, running down from the Vindhyan system; but the northern half, near the bank of the great river, possesses a somewhat richer soil, and approximatęs more nearly in character to the opposite plain of the Doab. The three ranges are known as the Vindhya-chal, the Panná, and the Bandair hills. They rise one behind the other. Irrigation is partially provided for, but the greatest part of the work is not yet completed. Below the junction of the Jumna and the Ganges at Allahábád, the country begins to put on somewhat the appearance of the Bengal plains; and it also once more expands northward, east of the intervening block of Oudh, to the foot of the Nepál Himalayas. This tract may be conveniently considered under three portions, respectively separated by the Ganges and the Gogra. The tract south of the Ganges comprises part of ALLAHABAD, BENARES, and GHAZIPUR Districts, together with the extensive District of MIRZAPUR. The general features of trans-Gangetic Allaha Mirzapur somewhat resemble those of Bundelkhand; but the lowlands along the river bank are more fertile, while the hill country is more inountainous and of greater extent. The triangle between the Ganges, the Gogra, and the boundary of Oudh, includes part of ALLAHABAD, JAUNPUR, half BENARES, part of GHAZIPUR, and the whole of AZAMGARH. This fertile corner of the Gangetic plain, lying wholly along the course of great rivers, possesses the densest population of the North-Western Provinces, and consists of an almost unbroken sheet of cultivation, spreading from the alluvial lowlands over the wide upland which rises from the river banks. Numerous towns and villages cover its surface; and its capital city,
