KOHAT  , a

town and district of British India, in the Peshawar division of the North-West Frontier Province . The town is 37 M. south of Peshawar by the Kohat Pass, along which a military road was opened in 1901 . The population in 1901 was 30,762, including 12,670 in the cantonment, which is garrisoned by artillery., cavalry and infantry . In the Tirah campaign of 1$97–98 Kohat was the starting-point of Sir William Lockhart's expedition against the Orakzais and Afridis . It is the military base for the southern Afridi frontier as Peshawar is for the northern frontier of the same tribe, and it lies in the heart of the Pathan country . The DISTRICT OF KOHAT has an area of 2973 sq. m . It consists chiefly of a bare and intricate mountain region east of the Indus, deeply scored with river valleys and ravines, but enclosing a few scattered patches of cultivated lowland . The eastern or Khattak country especially comprises a perfect labyrinth of ranges, which fall, however, into two principal groups, to the north and south of the Teri Toi river . The Miranzai valley, in the extreme west, appears by comparison a rich and fertile tract . In its small but carefully tilled glens, the plane, palm, fig and many orchard trees flourish luxuriantly; while a brushwood of wild olive, mimosa and other thorny bushes clothes the rugged ravines upon the upper slopes . Occasional grassy glades upon their sides form favourite pasture grounds for the Waziri tribes . The Teri Toi, rising on the eastern limit of Upper Miranzai, runs due eastward to the Indus, which it joins 12 M .

N. of Makhad, dividing the district into two

main portions . The drainage from the northern half flows south-ward into the Teri Toi itself, and northward into the parallel stream of the Kohat Toi . That of the southern tract falls north-wards also into the Teri Toi, and southwards towards the Kurram and the Indus . The frontier mountains, continuations of the Safed Koh system, attain in places a considerable elevation, the two principal peaks, Dupa Sir and Mazi Garh, just beyond the British frontier, being 826o and 7940 it. above the sea respectively . The Waziri hills, on the south, extend like a wedge between the boundaries of Bannu and Kohat, with a general elevation of less than 4000 ft . The salt-mines are situated in the low line of hills crossing the valley of the Teri Toi, and extending along both banks of that river . The deposit has a width of a quarter of a mile, with a thickness of I000 ft.; it sometimes forms hills 200 ft. in height, almost entirely composed of solid rock-salt, and may probably rank as one of the largest veins of its kind in the world . The most extensive exposure occurs at Bahadur Khel, on the south bank of the Teri Toi . The annual output is about 16,000 tons, yielding a revenue of 40,000 . Petroleum springs exude from a rock at Panoba, 23 M. east of Kohat; and sulphur abounds in the northern range . In Igor the population was 217,865, showing an increase of 11 % in the decade . The frontier tribes on the Kohat border are the Afridis, Orakzais, Zaimukhts and Turis .

All these are described under their

separate names . A railway runs from Kushalgarh through Kohat to Thal, and the river Indus has been bridged at Kushalgarh .