1 ‘Caries, Official decayed,! is situated about three miles west of the right or western
2 ia panel sete bank of the Indus, and four. miles above the point where the
3 81, 88; Burnes, Buggaur or western, and the Sata or eastern, branches of the
4 ee Mision to Tiver separate. Its site is consequently close to the vertex of the
5 beans re mal delta of the Indus, the channel of which is here about a mile and
6 347, a quarter wide, with a muddy stream, in the low season occupying
7 only a third of this space. The present city is built on a slight
8 eminence, composed of the rubbish of former buildings, in an
9 alluvial valley at the foot of the Mukali hills. It is in conse-
10 quence exceedingly unhealthy. The British troops stationed here
11 2 Kennedy, li. 217, 12 1839 suffered dreadful loss from diseases,? resulting from the-
12 ; pestilential air and bad water, which last is not only unwholesome,
13 3 Burnes, Pers. but fetid and offensive to the senses. The town appears to have
14 Hap eae ahaa been formerly insulated by the water of the Indus,‘ and is still
15 ae an nearly so during the season of inundation; when this passes
16 Macmurdo, in away it leaves numerous stagnant pools which infect the air.
17 Bone. ist, ps4, Dr. Burnes® states that it was once thirty miles in circuit, judging
18 ma no doubt from the vast space in the vicinity overspread by tombs
19 and ruins; but these are with much probability considered by
20 6 Oxus, 20, Wood § to be the relics of successive cities, built on various but
21 contiguous sites, to avoid the ravages, or take advantage of the
22 navigation, of the shifting currents of the Indus. These exten-
23 sive ruins are scattered from Peer Puttah, about ten miles south
24 of Tatta, to Sami-Nuggur, three miles north-west of it. The
25 ruins of the great fortress of Kulancote shew it to have been
26 constructed with much labour and skill, in a massive style of
27 building. ‘‘ The vast cemetery of six square miles,’’ observes
28 71.87, Kennedy,” ‘ may not contain less than a million of tombs—a
29 rude guess—but the area would admit of four millions.*’ In these
30 ruins the masonry and carving, both in brick and stone, display
31 great taste, skill, and industry. The bricks especially are of the
32 * 1.88, finest sort, nearly equalling porcelain. Kennedy observes,® ‘ The
33 finest-chiselled stone could not surpass the sharpness of edge and
34 angle, and accuracy of form.” Tatta, viewed at some distance
35 from the outside, presents a very striking and picturesque ap-
36 pearance, as its lofty houses rise over the numerous acacias and
37 ° 1. 80, other trees, everywhere interspersed, and which, says Kennedy,?
38 ‘* formed altogether as fine a picture of city scenery as I remem-
39 ber to have seen in India.” But the illusion is dissipated on
40 entering the town, where the houses are everywhere falling into