Nazim Hamid
Allee--His father-in-law Fuzl Allee--First loan from Oude to our
Government--Native gentlemen with independent incomes cannot reside
in the country--Crowd the city, and tend to alienate the Court from
the people.

_December_ 29, 1849.--Ten miles to Rampoor. Midway we passed over the
border of the Sultanpoor district into that of Salone, whose Amil,
Hoseyn Buksh, there met us with his _cortege_. Rampoor is the
Residence of Rajah Hunmunt Sing, the tallookdar of the two estates of
Dharoopoor and Kalakunkur, which extend down to and for some miles
along the left bank of the river Ganges. There is a fort in each of
these estates, and he formerly resided in that of Dharoopoor, four
miles from our present encampment. That of Kalakunkur is on the bank
of the Ganges. The lands along, on both sides the road, over which we
are come, are scantily cultivated, but well studded with good trees,
where the soil is good for them. A good deal of it is, however, the
poor oosur soil, the rest muteear, of various degrees of fertility.
The territory of Oude, as I have said above, must once have formed
part of the bed of a lake,* which contained a vast fund of soluble
salts. Through this bed, as the waters flowed off, the rivers from
the northern range of hills, which had before fed the lake, cut their
way to join the larger stream of the Ganges; and the smaller streams,
which have their sources in the dense forest of the Tarae, which now
extends along the southern border of that range, have since cut their
way through this bed in the same manner to the larger rivers. The
waters from these rivers percolate through the bed; and, as they rise
to the surface, by the laws of capillary attraction, they carry with
them these salts in solution. As they reach the surface in dry
weather, they give off by evaporation pure water; and the salts,
which they held in solution, remain behind in the upper surface. The
capillary action goes on; and as the pure water is taken off in the
atmosphere in vapour, other water impregnated with more salts comes
up to supply its place; and the salts near the surface either
accumulate or are supplied to the roots of the plants, shrubs, or
trees, which require them.

[* Caused, possibly, by the Vendeya range once extending E. N. E. up
to the Himmalaya chain, which runs E. S. E. It now extends up only to
the right bank of the Ganges, at Chunar and Mirzapoor.]

Rain-water,* which contains no such salts,