208

INDIA

Peshawur high on the list of undesirable stations in spite
of its many undoubted attractions.
Beyond Peshawur we cannot at present travel by rail,
although an extension to Jamrud at the foot of the Khaibar
is contemplated. The connecting links that are to bring
Kabul within a day's journey of Peshawur, and drop passengers
 at Jalalabad for the Kunar route to Chitral, are as
yet in the future. The natural terminus of the North-Western
 railway system will doubtless eventually be
formed at Kabul,
If we continue our journey through the Indo-Gangetic
plain by rail, returning to Lahore from Peshawur, and
starting thence for Calcutta, we shall witness the most
complete development of the railway system that has yet
permeated any part of India. There are singular natural
facilities for railway construction in this flat expanse, and
a singularly rich field for commercial enterprise, for it is
here that the most important cities of India have been
grouped from time immemorial. Delhi and Agra, Allahabad,
 Cawnpore, Lucknow, and Benares, all either lie on
the Great Central East Indian line or on its northern supclement
 of “Oudh and Rohilkand.” The chief wealth of
[ndia is within the Ganges basin, and it is a matter of
small surprise that the East Indian, now a State line,
should be financially the most ‘successful line in India.
From Lahore to Calcutta is a distance of 1250 miles,
of which the first 187 only are on the North-Western
system,
From Umballa (which is important only as a military
station pointing the road to Simla) the East India line
carries the trade of the north through Delhi, passing en
route the field of Paniput (where the destinies of India
have been decided more often than destinies equally great
have been decided on any field in the world’s history) and
following a direct line west of the Jumna. Delhi, the
ancient capital of Afghan and Moghul emperors, now an
important railway centre, is in the eyes of Hindus still the
metropolis of India. Its position, just on the edge of the
Punjab, however, practically reduces it to. a secondary