1 192 SHIKARPOOR.
2 and other fruits the usual produce of this country. Sugar-cane
3 is cultivated more with a view to its consumption as a sweetmeat
4 ‘than for producing sugar.
5 The wall by which Shikarpoor was once fortified is now in
6 ruins, but eight gates may still be traced. The circuit of the
7 wall is 3,831 yards. ‘The approaches to the town are bad, and
8 when reached it exhibits nothing attractive. Much waste ground
9 is interspersed among the houses in the inhabited part; the
10 streets are narrow and very filthy, and the houses in general
11 wretched. The mansions of the opulent Hindoo merchants are
12 large, massy, gloomy piles, inclosed and secluded by high brick
13 walls. Shikarpoor contains no public edifice worthy of notice.
14 The character of the place is thoroughly commercial, almost
15 every house having a shop attached to it. The bazaar extends
16 for about eight hundred yards through the centre of the city, and
17 is covered with rafters thatched with palm leaves. This arrange-
18 ment is intended to afford protection against the rays of the sun,
19 but it renders the air stagnant, oppressive, and injurious to
20 911, 249, health. Trade, however, appears to thrive. Conolly * observes
21 that “the shops seemed to be well filled with the necessaries of
22 life and various merchandize, and the people had that busy air
23 which characterizes men engaged in active trade.” Burnes states
24 the number of the shops in the bazaar in 1837 at 884. Postans,
25 in 1841, represents the number of Hindoo shops as 923. The
26 laborious trades and handicrafts are followed exclusively by
27 Mahometans. Burnes states the total annual value of the manu-
28 factures of Shikarpoor at 5,000/., but this is beyond question pre-
29 posterously too small, and there does not appear to be any means
30 of making a safe estimate of the amount. ‘The transit trade is
31 important, as the téwn is situate on one of the great routes from
32 Sinde to Khorasan and Afghanistan, through the Bolan Pass,
33 and also on that which leads northward to the Derajat, by the
34 western side of the Indus. There is likewise a route to Kurra-
35 chee by way of Sehwan, and one to Hindostan and the eastern
36 side of the Indus by the ferry at Roree and Sukkur, besides
37 others of less importance. ‘‘The direct trade of the town of
38 Felted a we Shikarpoor itself,” Burnes + observes, “ is not extensive; its port
39 varpoor, 25. 18 Kurrachee, from which it receives goods to the amount of
40 21,0902. annually.” By this he seems to mean goods intended
41 for the consumption of the town itself. The trade with Khorasan