~Bannu.~--The small Bannu district occupies a basin surrounded by hills and drained by the Kurram and its affluent, the Tochi. It is cut off from the Indus by the Isakhel _tahsil_ of Mianwali and by a horn of the Dera Ismail Khan district. Bannu is now connected with Kalabagh in Mianwali by a narrow gauge railway. An extension of this line from Laki to Tank in the Dera Ismail Khan district has been sanctioned. There are two _tahsils_, Bannu and Marwat. The cultivated area is about one-half of the total area. About 30 p.c. of the cultivation is protected by irrigation from small canals taking out of the streams. Most of the irrigation is in the Bannu _tahsil_. The greater part of Marwat is a dry sandy tract yielding in favourable seasons large crops of gram. But the harvests on unirrigated land are precarious, for the annual rainfall is only about 12 inches. The irrigated land in Bannu is heavily manured and is often double-cropped. Wheat accounts for nearly half of the whole crops of the district. The Marwats are a frank manly race of good physique. The Bannuchis are hard-working, but centuries of plodding toil on a wet soil has spoiled their bodily development, and had its share in imparting to their character qualities the reverse of admirable. The Deputy Commissioner has also political charge of some 17,884 tribesmen living across the border. There are good metalled roads to Dera Ismail Khan and Kohat, and also one on the Tochi route. [Sidenote: Area, 2973 sq. m. Cultd area, 512 sq. m. Pop. 222,690. Land Rev. Rs. 275,462 = L18,364.] ~Kohat~ is a large district, but most of it is unfit for tillage and only one-sixth is actually cultivated. The chief crops are wheat, 44, and _bajra_, 26 p.c. The district stretches east and west for 100 miles from Khushalgarh on the Indus to Thal at the mouth of the Kurram valley. The two places are now connected by a railway which passes through the district headquarters at Kohat close to the northern border. There are three _tahsils_, Kohat, Hangu, and Teri, the last a wild tract of bare hills and ravines occupying the south of the district and covering more than half its area. Two small streams, the Kohat Toi and the Teri Toi, drain into the Indus. The rainfall is fair, but very capricious. The cold weather lasts long and the chill winds that blow during part of it are very trying. The chief tribes are the Bangash Pathans of Hangu and the Khattak Pathans of Teri. The Khan of Teri is head of the Khattaks, a manly race which sends many soldiers to our army. He enjoys the revenue of the _tahsil_ subject to a quit rent of Rs. 20,000.