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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 22, p. 386.

386 SIJILA IIILL STATES controlled by the Superintendent, Simla Hill States, in subordination to the Punjab Government. Table III appended to the article on the PUNJAB (Vol. XX, P. 381) gives some of the leading statistics regarding them. The mountains here form a continuous series of ranges, ascending from the low hills which bound the plains of Ambala to the great central chain of the Western Himalayas. This central chain terminates a few miles south of the Sutlej in Bashahr, the most northern of the States. The same State is broken on its northern frontier by spurs from the snowy hills which separate it from Spiti, and on the east by similar spurs from the range shutting it off from Chinese Tartary. Starting from the termination of the Central Himalayas, a transverse range, the last to the south of the Sutlej, runs south-west throughout the length of the Simla States, forming the watershed between the Sutlej and the Jumna. A few miles north-east of Simla, it divides into two main branches, one following the line of the Sutlej in a north-west direction, and the other, on which Simla stands, continuing south-west, until, at a few miles north of Sabathu, it meets at right angles the mountains of the Outer or sub-Himalayan system, which have a direc- tion parallel to the Central Himalayas, i. e. from north-west to south- east. South and east of Simla, the hills lying between the Sutlej and the Tons, the principal feeder of the Jumna, centre in the great Chaur peak, 11,982 feet high, itself the termination of a minor chain that branches off southwards from the main Simla range. The moun- tain system (excluding Bashahr) may be thus mapped out roughly into three portions: the Chaur peak, and the spurs radiating from it, occupy- ing the south-east corner; the Simla range, extending from the Central Himalayas to the neighbourhood of Sabathu; and the mountains of the sub-Himalayan series, running from north-west to south-east, and forming the boundary of the Ambala plains. The last-mentioned group may be subdivided into the sub-Himalayas proper, and an outer range, corresponding to the Siwalik hills of Hoshiarpur on the one side and of the Gangetic Doab on the other. The sub-Himalayan and the Siwalik ranges form parallel lines, having between them an open space of varying width, known as the Kiarda Dun, a broad and well-cultivated valley. The Dun in Nalagarh is open and richly cultivated, like the corresponding Kiarda Dun in Sirmur and Jaswan Dun in Hoshiarpur. The wilder parts of Bashahr beyond the Sutlej are thus described by Sir H. Davies :- `Immediately to the south of Spiti and Lahul is the district of Kanawar, which forms the largest subdivision of the Bashahr prin- cipality, and consists of a series of rocky and precipitous ravines, descending rapidly to the bed of the Sutlej. The district is about qo miles long, by 4o and 2o broad at its northern and southern