(_b_) ~Small game in Plains.~--The cold weather shooting begins with the advent of the quail in the end of September and ends when they reappear among the ripening wheat in April. The duck arrive from the Central Asian lakes in November and duck and snipe shooting lasts till February in districts where there are _jhils_ and swampy land. For a decent shot 30 couple of snipe is a fair bag. To get duck the _jhil_ should be visited at dawn and again in the evening, and it is well to post several guns in favourable positions in the probable line of flight. 40 or 50 birds would be a good morning's bag. In drier tracts the bag will consist of partridges and a hare or two, or, if the country is sandy, some sand-grouse and perhaps a bustard. CHAPTER IX THE PEOPLE: NUMBERS, RACES, AND LANGUAGES ~Growth of Population.~--It is probable that in the 64 years since annexation the population of the Panjab has increased by from 40 to 50 per cent. The first reliable census was taken in 1881. The figures for the four decennial enumerations are: |-------------------------------------------------------------| | | | | | | | Panjab | N.W.F. | Kashmir | |Year |----------------------------------| Province | | | | British | Native | Total | | | | | | States | | | | |-------------------------------------------------------------| |1881 |17,274,597 |3,861,683 |21,136,280 |1,543,726 | | |1891 |19,009,368 |4,263,280 |23,272,648 |1,857,504 |2,543.952| |1901 |20,330,337 |4,424,398 |24,754,735 |2,041,534 |2,905,578| |1911 |19,974,956 |4,212,974 |24,187,730 |2,196,933 |3,158,126| |-------------------------------------------------------------| ~Incidence of Population in Panjab.~--The estimated numbers of independent tribes dwelling within the British sphere of influence is 1,600,000. The incidence of the population on the total area of the Panjab including native States is 177 per square mile, which may be compared with 189 in France and 287 in the British Isles. As the map shows, the density is reduced by the large area of semi-desert country in the south-west and by the mountainous tract in the north-east. The distribution of the population is the exact opposite of that which prevails in Great Britain. There are only 174 towns as compared with 44,400 villages, and nearly nine-tenths of the people are to be found in the latter. Some of the so-called towns are extremely small, and the average population per town is but 14,800 souls. There are no large towns in the European sense. The biggest, Delhi and Lahore, returned respectively 232,837 and 228,687 persons. [Illustration: Fig. 27. Map showing density of population.] [Illustration: Fig. 28. Map showing increase and decrease of population.]