1 SINDE: 205
2 drawn from the sea and river, form a very considerable proportion
3 of the subsistence of the inhabitants.
4 In some degree similar to the delta, but superior to it in
5 scenery, soil, cultivation, and climate, is the alluvial tract, extend-
6 ing on each side of the Indus for a distance varying from two to ten
7 or twelve miles. But extensive portions of this country have been
8 depopulated® by the Ameers of Sinde, to form Shikargahs or ° Burnes, ili, 257;
9 hunting-preserves, now consisting of dense thickets of tamarisks, Y°* **
10 saline plants, shrubs, and brambles. One of the finest parts is
11 a long, narrow island, extending from north to south, a distance
12 of about one hundred miles, with an average breadth of about
13 eight ; inclosed by the Indus on the east, and on the west by:
14 the Narra. The greatest extent of this alluvial land in the upper
15 part of Sinde appears to be about Khyerpoor, Shikarpoor, and
16 Larkhana,! where canals and watercousses, communicating with ' Postans, 21.
17 the Indus, during inundation cover the surface to a wide range
18 with water, which both irrigates the ground and deposits on
19 it a fertilizing slime. According to Postans,? the soil is so ? Semorandum
20 tich that no manure of any kind is used, though it regularly Te, hoe’?
21 produces two crops every year, and sometimes three ; and Mac- Beng. 1840, p.17.
22 murdo® states, that “ the fertility of this province in those parts 3 Jour. Roy. As.
23 which are exposed to the floods of the Indus is exceeded by 5° 184 P. 228.
24 that of no tract of country on the earth.” Throughout
25 the alluvial tracts of Sinde, the soil contains saltpetre in great
26 abundance, and it is largely extracted both for home consumption
27 and for exportation.
28 An extensive alluvial region stretches eastward of the fertile
29 fract along the Indus, but being now generally deserted by.
30 the water of the river, it has become a desert,‘ yielding’ a4 stacmurdo, on
31 scanty pasture to camels or horned cattle, and in ‘the less lair rae ti
32 frequented parts occupied only by the fleet goorkhur,5 or wild..1894, p. 41.
33 ass. ‘Through it flows the Eastern Narra during the height of | Beh. 7s Bumes
34 the inundations of the Indus. The great doab contained be. |
35 tween this branch and the Indus is on an average about seventy
36 or eighty miles wide; the soil consisting generally of a hard
37 sun-baked clay,6 like the rest of the alluvial soil of Sinde 6 nord, Med.
38 where devoid of water. In this doab are two low ranges of recent Mom on sn
39 limestone; the more southern, that of Hyderabad, about one hun- dus, 58, 59.
40 dred feet high, and on one part of which that city is situate; the
41 more northern running north-westward from the vicinity of Jes-