1 5 Lord, 61.
2 7 Masson, 850;
3 Outram, 57 ;
4 Kennedy, i. 189;
5 Havelock, 1. 184;
6 Hough, 47.
7 9 Riph. 8, 9
8 9 Macmurdo, on
9 Binde, in Jour.
10 Roy. As. Soc.
11 1884, p. 281;
12 Masson, i. 10.
13 206 SINDE.
14 sulmair, and towards the Indus attaining an elevation of a hun-
15 dred and fifty feet, and abounding in flint, which forms, almost
16 exclusively, the rocks on which Roree and Bukkur stand. These
17 ranges are not, however, completely continuous, being cut by
18 valleys, through one of which the Narra already mentioned holds
19 its course; through another, the Fulailee branch, insulating
20 Hyderabad.
21 The stiff nature of the deposit of the river is, probably, ow-
22 ing to its course in the upper part generally lying through a very
23 mountainous region, principally of primitive formation. In the
24 more southern part of Sinde, the soil bas a very large admixture
25 of sand, and is sometimes so impregnated with common salt that,
26 as Lord observes, “it is not uncommon to see the same soil, which
27 during the season of irrigation had yielded crops of grain, trans-
28 ferred afterwards to the Salt-pan, and furnishing, by the simple
29 process of pouring water over it, which is subsequently evapo-
30 rated, an abundant supply ofsalt.” The moisture, so indispensa-
31 ble to the productiveness of the soil, is altogether supplied by the
32 water of the Indus,® rain in Sinde being very scanty and uncer-
33 tain. In consequence, the country, where destitute of the means
34 of irrigation, becomes a desert. Of this nature, on the north-east,
35 is the Pat,” or desert of Shikarpoor, lying between that town
36 and the Bolan Pass, and apparently consisting of the clay de-
37 posited by the Bolan, the Nari, and other torrents which flow
38 down from the Hala mountains, and which are all lost in this
39 dreary tract. It is about ninety miles across, and, according to
40 Kennedy, in some places resembles “ the dry bed of-a salt lagoon
41 in an interval between spring tides ;”’ in others, it is a level plain
42 of indurated clay of a dull earthy colour, and having the appear-
43 ance of being occasionally under water, but during the dry sea-
44 son exhibiting, at Jong intervals, a few wretched, parched, and
45 stunted shrubs, but without a single blade of grass or other herb-
46 age. In the eastern part, and in general reaching to within
47 twenty miles or even a less distance of the river, is a region called
48 the Thur, or desert, having considerable resemblance to that
49 just described, except that it is much more sandy; extensive
50 tracts being covered with sand-hills,® varying and shifting
51 under the influence of the tempests of the wilderness. Yet,® in
52 many places there is a considerable growth of low shrubs, coarse
53 herbage, and prickly, saline, or aromatic plants, affording pas.