JHELUM, or JEHLAM, a town and district of British India, in the
Rawalpindi division of the Punjab. The town is situated on the right
bank of the river Jhelum, here crossed by a bridge of the North-Western
railway, 103 m. N. of Lahore. Pop. (1901), 14,951. It is a modern town
with river and railway trade (principally in timber from Kashmir),
boat-building and cantonments for a cavalry and four infantry regiments.
The DISTRICT OF JEHLUM stretches from the river Jhelum almost to the
Indus. Area, 2813 sq. m. Pop. (1901), 501,424, showing a decrease of 2%
in the decade. Salt is quarried at the Mayo mine in the Salt Range.
There are two coal-mines, the only ones worked in the province, from
which the North-Western railway obtains part of its supply of coal. The
chief centre of the salt trade is Pind Dadan Khan (pop. 13,770). The
district is crossed by the main line of the North-Western railway, and
also traversed along the south by a branch line. The river Jhelum is
navigable throughout the district, which forms the south-eastern portion
of a rugged Himalayan spur, extending between the Indus and Jhelum to
the borders of the Sind Sagar Doab. Its scenery is very picturesque,
although not of so wild a character as the mountain region of Rawalpindi
to the north, and is lighted up in places by smiling patches of
cultivated valley. The backbone of the district is formed by the Salt
Range, a treble line of parallel hills running in three long forks from
east to west throughout its whole breadth. The range rises in bold
precipices, broken by gorges, clothed with brushwood and traversed by
streams which are at first pure, but soon become impregnated with the
saline matter over which they pass. Between the line of hills lies a
picturesque table-land, in which the beautiful little lake of Kallar
Kahar nestles amongst the minor ridges. North of the Salt Range, the
country extends upwards in an elevated plateau, diversified by countless
ravines and fissures, until it loses itself in tangled masses of
Rawalpindi mountains. In this rugged tract cultivation is rare and
difficult, the soil being choked with saline matter. At the foot of the
Salt Range, however, a small strip of level soil lies along the banks of
the Jhelum, and is thickly dotted with prosperous villages. The drainage
of the district is determined by a low central watershed running north
and south at right angles to the Salt Range. The waters of the western
portion find their way into the Sohan, and finally into the Indus; those
of the opposite slope collect themselves into small torrents, and empty
themselves into the Jhelum.
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