BIKANER.
438
speaking, the villages are far apart, and though grass and jungle bushes
here and there abound, the aspect of the country
is
dreary and desolate
Elphinstone has said that within a short distance of the capital, the country is as waste as the wildest parts of Arabia. Forest does not exist. South of the capital there is a considerable tract covered with brushwood, in which the horses and cattle of the in the extreme.
chief are allowed to range, and near plantations of the
Ber
some
of the towns there are small
During and
(Zizy'phus jujuba).
just after the
however, wears a very different aspect, becoming a vast green pasture-land covered with the richest and most succulent rains, the countr)^
grasses.
The Bikaner country
contains no rivers or streams.
nald sometimes flows from
season, a
In the rainy
Shaikhawati over the eastern
soon lost in the sands. The Ghagar, called also the Satra Punjab, once flowed through the northern part of the present Bikaner territory ; but it is now dry, and wells are dug in its bed, where it is said the only sweet water in that region is to be found. During the rains, however, it sometimes contains water for a few miles of its course ; and the Tibi pargana is greatly benefited by border, but
or
it.
Hakra
is
in the
Some
water from the Western
State west of Hissar.
drainage
of the
Two
little
Jumna Canal
occasionally enters the
fresh- water -lakelets,
rocky country south-west of
formed by the lie on the
Bikaner,
The first, Gajner, about 20 miles from the capital, has clear water and wooded margin ; its palace and garden and fields are a pleasing contrast to the surrounding wilds ; route from Bikaner to Jaisalmir.
the other, 12 miles farther on the route,
is
bathing ghats having been built on the banks. the Shujangarh District
Bikaner; shallow, is
it
salt
The
lake of
Chapar
in
the principal source of the salt supply of
about 6 miles long by
is
2
miles wide, but
it
is
very
up before the hot weather begins. There The salt lake about 40 miles north-east of Bikaner.
and almost
another
is
a sacred spot, numerous
dries
produced from these lakes
is
of inferior quality, ralued at about half
Sambhar salt. It is only consumed by the poor, or used for curing skins and other antiseptic purposes. Water in Bikaner is found, notwithstanding the slight apparent difference in the level of the country, at very varying depths, and is Thus, the city wells are more than 300 feet of very unequal quality. deep, but the water of most is of excellent quality, while 10 or 12 miles to the north and north-west water is found within 20 feet of the the price of
surface
inch too
but frequently there far,
is
—
an not above 3 feet of sweet water, is tapped, thus spoil-
and the stratum of pernicious water
ing the well for
all
practical purposes.
The people
of the country
depend a good deal upon rain-water, the drainage of the neighbourhood being collected either in covered pits, called hands, or in simple
