Sir James Douie, in this work, is obviously living over again the happy thirty-five years which he devoted to the service of North-West India: his accounts of the physiography, the flora and fauna, the people and the administration are essentially the personal recollections of one who has first studied the details as a District Officer and has afterwards corrected his perspective, stage by stage, from the successively higher view-point of a Commissioner, the Chief Secretary, Financial Commissioner, and finally as Officiating Lieut.-Governor. No one could more appropriately undertake the task of an accurate and well-proportioned thumb-nail sketch of North-West India and, what is equally important to the earnest reader, no author could more obviously delight in his subject. T. H. H. ALDERLEY EDGE, _March 9th, 1916._ NOTE BY AUTHOR My thanks are due to the Government of India for permission to use illustrations contained in official publications. Except where otherwise stated the numerous maps included in the volume are derived from this source. My obligations to provincial and district gazetteers have been endless. Sir Thomas Holdich kindly allowed me to reproduce some of the charts in his excellent book on _India_. The accuracy of the sections on geology and coins may be relied on, as they were written by masters of these subjects, Sir Thomas Holland and Mr R. B. Whitehead, I.C.S. Chapter XVII could not have been written at all without the help afforded by Mr Vincent Smith's _Early History of India_. I have acknowledged my debts to other friends in the "List of Illustrations." J. M. D. _8 May 1916._ CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. Areas and Boundaries 1 II. Mountains, Hills, and Plains 8 III. Rivers 32 IV. Geology and Mineral Resources 50 V. Climate 64 VI. Herbs, Shrubs, and Trees 71 VII. Forests 86 VIII. Beasts, Birds, Fishes, and Insects 90 IX. The People: Numbers, Races, and Languages 96 X. The People: Religions 114 XI. The People: Education 122 XII. Roads and Railways 127 XIII. Canals 132 XIV. Agriculture and Crops 142 XV. Handicrafts and Manufactures 152 XVI. Exports and Imports 159 XVII. History: Pre-Muhammadan Period, 500 B.C.-1000 A.D. 160