1 SINDE. 211
2 plant (Solanum melongena) is abundant, and much esteemed as an
3 esculent.* A gigantic® grass, called cana, and in some places ® wood, Ozus, 15;
4 moonj, is very abundant in moist situations, where it grows to the Jy Knives,“
5 height of from twelve to twenty feet, and is so thick, strong, and Jour. as. Soc.
6 crowded together, as to form a sort of thicket, through which it 18 aes
7 is very difficult to force a way. It is very useful for making
8 mats, baskets, thatch, ropes, and for other similar purposes.
9 A large collection illustrative of the zoology of the country
10 was made during the exploratory expedition of Burnes ® in 1837, ® Pers. Narr. 41.
11 but the results donot appear to have been given to the public.t
12 The goorkkur, or wild ass, a species of the genus eguus, and in
13 shape resembling the guagga of Southern Africa, roams in large
14 herds over the Thur, or Eastern Desert, which is also frequented by
15 various species of antelopes.' Tigers 2 abound in the jungle by ' Elph.7; Bumes,
16 the river side ; also hyzenas, wolves, jackals, foxes, otters, badgers, Petar 61.
17 wild hogs, deer, hog-deer (Azis porcinus), porcupines, hares.
18 Porpoises, or some similar cetacea, called by the natives bolun,3 3 westmacott,
19 abound in the Indus. The guryaé,4 or slender-snouted alligator, eae
20 is also common in the river and creeks, and is considered harm- Nr. 8.
21 less. The common alligator ® swarms in the hot pools formed by * De La Hoste,
22 the thermal springs near Kurrachee. Two hundred large ones putes Rage
23 are said to have been found in one piece of water one hundred and eee
24 twenty yards in circumference. Snakes, scorpions, and centi-
25 pedes are to be met with. Leeches are numerous in many places,
26 and much used for surgical purposes. There are birds in great
27 number and variety, especially water-fowl. The flamingo,® or ° 12. §. 56.
28 pheenicopter, frequents the shores of the delta, as does the pelican,
29 which attains a great size, being inferior in this respect only to the
30 ostrich ; one taken by Burnes? stood four feet high, and measured 7 Pors. Narr. 7.
31 nine feet eight inches from tip to tip ofitsavings. Water-fowl are
32 80 plentiful that in some places a wild goose® may be bought for ® nfasson, i. 21.
33 less than a halfpenny, and two or three ducks for the same sum.
34 Bustards, partridges, quails, jungle-fowl (the wild stock of our com-
35 * Lord! states that both the pepul, or Ficus religiosa, and the banyan, or ' 60.
36 Ficus Indica, grow in Sinde. Burnes? states that the banyan is not to be 9 ili. 274.
37 found there.
38 tT Burnes states, that the drawing and information obtained in his mission Id. 41.
39 of 1837, concerning the zoology of Sinde, comprised, of genera and species,
40 twenty mammaita, one hundred and ninety-one birds, thirty-six fiahes, eleven
41 reptiles, besides two hundred in other departments of natural history.
42 rP2