The eastern branch, or Sata, is the larger of the two, and below the point of division is one thousand yards wide: it now affords egress to the principal body of the water; and though it divides and subdivides itself into numerous channels, and precipitates its water into the sea by no less than seven mouths within the space of thirty-five miles, yet such is the violence of the stream, that it throws up sand banks or bars, and only one of this many-mouthed arm is ever entered by vessels of fifty tons. The water sent out to sea from them during the swell of the river is fresh for four miles; and the Gora, or largest mouth, has cast up a dangerous sand bank, which projects directly from the land for fifteen miles.
The Buggaur.
The western arm, which is called Buggaur, on the other hand, flows into one stream past Peer Putta, Bohaur, and Darajee, to within five or six miles of the sea, when it divides into two navigable branches, the Pittee and Pieteanee, which fall into the ocean about twenty-five miles apart from each other. These are considered the two great mouths of the Indus, and were frequented till lately by the largest native boats. They are yet accessible, but for three years past the channel of the Buggaur has been deserted by the river; and though it contains two fathoms of water as high as Darajee, it shallows above that town. In the dry season it is in some places but knee-deep, and its bed, which continues nearly half a mile broad, has at that time but a breadth of 100 yards. The name of Buggaur signifies “destroy.” While this alteration has diverted the trade from Darajee to the banks of the Sata, the country near the Buggaur is as rich as it was previously; and though the branch itself is not navigated, yet there are frequently two fathoms in its bed, and every where a sufficiency of water for flat-bottomed boats. During the swell it is a fine river, and will in all probability shortly regain its former pre-eminence.
Delta; its size.
The land embraced by both these arms of the delta extends, at the junction of the rivers with the sea, to about seventy British miles; and so much, correctly speaking, is the existing delta of this river. The direction of the sea-coast along this line of rivers is north-north-west.
Delta may be considered longer.
But the Indus covers with its waters a wider space than that now described, and has two other mouths still further to the eastward than those thrown out by the Sata, the Seer, and Koree, the latter the boundary line which divides Cutch from Sinde, though the rulers of that country have diverted the waters of both these branches by canals for irrigation, so that none of them reach the sea. With the addition of these forsaken branches, the Indus presents a face of about 125 British miles to the sea, which it may be said to enter by eleven mouths. The latitude of the most western embouchure is about 24° 40´ N., that of the eastern below 28° 30´, so that in actual latitude there is an extent of about eighty statute miles.[20]
Dangers of navigating the delta.
The inconstancy of the Indus through the delta is proverbial, and there is here both difficulty and danger in its navigation. It has in these days, among the people of Sinde, as bad a character as has been left to it by the Greek historians. The water is cast with such impetuosity from one bank to another, that the soil is constantly falling in upon the river; and huge masses of clay hourly tumble into the stream, often with a tremendous crash. In some places the water, when resisted by a firm bank, forms eddies and gulfs of great depth, which contain a kind of whirlpool, in which the vessels heel round, and require every care to prevent accident. The current in such places is really terrific, and in a high wind the waves dash as in the ocean. To avoid these eddies, and the rotten parts of the bank, seemed the chief objects of care in the boatmen.
Peculiarities of navigation.