h
increased by the opening of the Upper Swat Canal. The cold weather
climate is on the whole pleasant, though too severe in December and
January. The three months from August to October are a very unhealthy
time. The soil except in the stony lands near the hills is a fertile
loam. The cold weather rainfall is good, and the Spring harvest is by
far the more important of the two. Wheat is the chief crop. Half of the
people are Pathans, the rest are known generically as Hindkis. The
principal Hindki tribe is that of the Awans. Besides managing his own
people the Deputy Commissioner has to supervise our relations with
240,000 independent tribesmen across the border. The Assistant
Commissioner at Mardan, where the Corps of Guides is stationed, is in
charge of our dealings with the men of Buner and the Yusafzai border.
The N.W. Railway runs past the city of Peshawar to Jamrud, and there is
a branch line from Naushahra to Dargai at the foot of the Malakand Pass.

[Sidenote: Area, 2858 sq. m.
Cultd area,
673 sq. m.
Pop. 603,028.
Land Rev.
Rs. 512,897
= L34,193.]

[Illustration: Fig. 132.]

~Hazara~ is a typical montane and submontane district with a copious
rainfall and a good climate. It has every kind of cultivation from
narrow terraced _kalsi_ fields built laboriously up steep mountain
slopes to very rich lands watered by canal cuts from the Dor or Haro.
Hazara is divided into three _tahsils_, Haripur, Abbottabad, and
Mansehra. Between a fourth and a fifth of this area is culturable and
cultivated. In this crowded district the words are synonymous. The above
figure does not include the 204 square miles of Feudal Tanawal. The
rainfall is copious and the crops generally speaking secure. The
principal are maize 42 and wheat 25 p.c. Hazara was part of the
territory made over to Raja Gulab Singh in 1846, but he handed it back
in exchange for some districts near Jammu. The maintenance of British
authority in Hazara in face of great odds by the Deputy Commissioner,
Captain James Abbott, during the Second Sikh War is a bright page in
Panjab history, honourable alike to himself and his faithful local
allies. The population is as mixed as the soils. Pathans are numerous,
but they are split up into small tribes. The Swatis of Mansehra are the
most important section. After Pathans Gujars and Awans are the chief
tribes. The Gakkhars, though few in number, hold much land and a
dominant position in the Khanpur tract on the Rawalp