1 118 ROHTAS
2 point. The secondary bed may be a hundred
3 ‘feet wide, but when in flood it extends from
4 rock to rock, and may vary from four hundred
5 . to eight hundred feet in width. ‘During the
6 cold season there appears to be only a few
7 inches of water in the Nala, but when in flood
8 it is three, four, or five feet deep, and the com-
9 munication between the plains and these hills
10 is cut off. The hills are composed of sandstone,
11 while the flat tops are frequently covered with
12 pebbles and stones of various kinds. The sand-
13 stone is of a whitish or grey colour, very friable,
14 and such as is generally found in all the streams
15 “of the Panjab. In many parts there is a layer
16 of earth above the sandstone, as if the country
17 had been the bed of a lake. One spot near the
18 Nala looked like a volcanic irruption; the
19 earth about it was red as if it had been burnt.
20 I went to see the fort of Rohtas, which is
21 going to ruin. Within its walls is a mere
22 village. In circumference it may be about
23 two kos. It was built by Sher Shah, the
24 usurper of the government of the Emperor
25 Hamyun, about three hundred and five years
26 ago, to prevent any invasion from Afghanistan