of more moderate dimensions, and, to turn the water into the cross-cuts formed, must have been closed below Fattehgarh, probably by an earthen dam renewed annually, no remains whatsoever of any permanent work remaining in that vicinity. By one or other, or all of the channels, the remains of which now exist, the water was conveyed across a tongue of land into what is clearly another old channel of the Jamna under Búrya, being a wide hollow, skirting the high ground to its north and west, which is continuous, though with numerous and deep indentations, from the hills along the right bank of the Súmbe river, and then following this water-course as far as Karnál; towards the hills rising little short of 100 feet, and sinking south of Karnál, near Uncha Sumáná, (where the canal enters on the high land, and diverges from the Jamna,) to about 15 feet. Above this point the land on the left bank is uniformly low, extending to and forming the Kádir land of the Jamna, a most fertile tract, almost entirely under cultivation, and from its composition, and the closeness of water to the surface, almost independent of irrigation.
From Uncha Samáná, a canal must have been excavated, at first of great depth, but gradually diminishing as it approached Suffídon, near which it opened into a branch of the Chítang river, said to come from near Teraûri by Barôd, a few miles east of Suffídon[1], along which the canal was led with partial excavations, of which the remains exist, in some places more, in others less, (as would be the case in clearing out a river bed,) until it rejoined the other branch of the Chítang, at Dhátrat. From Dhátrat the marks are more apparent of its having been an ancient river bed, simply cleared out to pass on a stream of water to Hissár, and a few miles beyond the latter, apparently with a view to provide an escape for the surplus water of the canal into the old bed of the river; as within a few miles of Hissár all trace of former excavation ceases, whilst the river bed is continuous; latterly, winding among the sand hills of Bhikanír, or more properly speaking, along the northern bounds of the sandy desert[2], until the bed unites with that of the Ghaghar river, near Badhopal, and about 22
- ↑ Of this branch all I am aware of is, that in heavy seasons of rain great floods pour into the canal near Barôd, said to be consequent on the destruction of the earthen dams of the Chítang.
- ↑ The grounds of this remark are, that south of the bed of the Chítang the country is merely a succession of hills, and swells of sand, in some parts rising 200 feet, whilst to the north the sand is chiefly in detached ridges and patches; the sub-soil, when it gets clear of the drift sand, being a hard flat, covered with low tree jungle, totally different from the sandy desert of Bhikanír.
