SIALKOT, or SEALKOTE  , a town and district of British India, in the Lahore division of the Punjab . The town, which has a station on the North-Western railway, is 72 M . N.E. of Lahore . Pop . (1901) 57,956 . It is a military cantonment, being the headquarters of a brigade in the 2nd division of the northern army . There are remains of a fort dating from about the loth century; but the mound on which they stand is traditionally supposed to mark the site of a much earlier stronghold, and some authorities identify it with the ancient Sakala or Sagal . Other ancient buildings are the shrine of Baba Nanak, the first Sikh Guru, that of the Mahommedan Imam Ali-ul-hakk and Raja Tej Singh's temple . The town has an extensive trade, and manufactures of sporting implements, boots, paper, cotton, cloth and shawl-edging . There are Scottish and American missions, a Scottish mission training institution and an arts college . The DISTRICT of SIALKOT has an area of 1991 sq. m . It is an oblong tract of country occupying the submontane portion of the Rechna (Ravi-Chenab) Doab, fringed on either side by a line of fresh alluvial soil, above which rise the high banks that form the limits of the river-beds .

The Degh, which rises in the

Jammu hills, traverses the district parallel to the Ravi, and is likewise fringed by low alluvial soil . The north-eastern boundary is 20 M. distant from the outer line of the Himalayas; but about midway between the Ravi and the Chenab is a high dorsal tract, extending from beyond the border and stretching far into the district . Sialkot is above the average of the Punjab in fertility . The upper portion is very productive; but the southern portion, farther removed from the influence of the rains, shows a marked decrease of fertility . The district is also watered by numerous small torrents; and several swamps or jhils, scattered over the face of the country, are of considerable value as reservoirs of surplus water for purposes of irrigation . Sialkot is reputed to be healthy; it is free from excessive heat, judged by the common standard of the Punjab; and its average annual rainfall varies from 35 in. near the hills to 22 in. in the parts farthest from them . The population in 1901 was 1,083,909, showing a decrease of 3 % as against an increase of 11% in the previous decade . This is explained by the fact that Sialkot contributed over loo,000 persons to the Chenab colony (q.v.) . The principal crops are wheat, barley, maize, millets and sugar-cane . The district is crossed by a branch of the North-Western railway from Wazirabad to Jammu . The early history of Sialkot is closely interwoven with that of the rest of the Punjab . It was annexed by the British after the second Sikh war in 1849; since then its area has been consider-ably reduced, assuming its present proportions in 1867 .

During the

Mutiny of 1857 the native troops plundered the treasury and destroyed all the records, when most of the European residents took refuge in the fort .