THE LAND OF CONTRASTS 5
Independent Territory, who, for well nigh a century,
resisted subjugation by the British. For administrative
purposes, the latter area (before the partition) was divided
into five Political Agencies, viz., Malakand, Kurram,
Khyber, North Waziristan and South Waziristan.
Much of the province is still " virgin soil". It is rich in
untapped mineral resources, the principal among these
being rock-salt, oil, cement, marble, sulphur, coal and tin.
Some gold and iron too have been found. It has plenty of
labour and an immense reservoir of water power. The prin-
cipal crops,are maize and barley in the cold weather and
wheat, barley and gram in the spring. Rice and sugarcane -
are largely grown on the irrigated lands of Hazara, Pesha-
war and Eannu Districts, while the well and canal irriga-
ted tracts of the Peshawar District produce fine crops of
cotton and tobacco. In the trans-border agencies, the val-
leys of the Swat, the Kurram and the Tochi rivers yield
abundant rice crops.
The following is an account of its natural features
as recorded in the Administrative Report for 1922-23 :
The District of Hazara forms " a wedge extending
north-eastwards far into the outer Himalayan Range and
tapering to a narrow point at the head of the Kagan
valley/' It comprises both the hill tracts in the tahsil of
Mansehra and Abbottabad and the well watered plain of
Haripur tahsil. This area corresponds to the territory of
Takshashila or Taxila — the ancient flourishing cis-Indus
Kingdom, which fell to the prowess 'of Alexander's arms.
The mountain chains which form the Kagan defile " sweep
southward into the border portion of the district, throwing
off well-wooded spurs which break up the country into
numerous glens ". The District is a fine health resort and
full of spots of rare natural beauty which can compare
with any in the world.
The tract between the Indus and the hills consists of
a series of three plains, viz., Peshawar, Bannu and Dera
Ismail Khan, divided one from the other by the low hills
of Kohat and by the off-shoots of the Salt Range. The
vale of Peshawar is for the most part highly irrigated and