However accessible these two branches have been found, neither of them are navigated by any other than flat-bottomed boats, which carry the entire cargo to and from the mouth of the river, inside which the sea vessels anchor. It was an unheard-of occurrence for boats like the four that conveyed us (none of them twenty-five tons in burden) to ascend so high up the Pittee as we did, a distance of thirty miles; but assuredly we encountered no obstacles.
Jooa, Reechel, and Hujamree.
Of the seven mouths that give egress to the waters of the Sata, or eastern branch, below Tatta, the Jooa, Reechel, and Hujamree, lie within ten miles of each other. One of these mouths has been at all times more or less navigable; and while they are the estuaries of the waters of the Sata, still a portion of those thrown off by the Buggaur, or other grand arm, reach them by inferior creeks during the swell, forming an admirable inland navigation through all parts of the delta. The mouths of the Jooa and Reechel are choked; but the latter was at a late period the most frequented of all the branches of the Indus. It was formerly marked by a minaret, which has, I suppose, fallen down, as this fact is particularly mentioned by our early navigators. There is yet a village, near its mouth, called Moonara, or minaret. The Hujamree is now accessible to boats of fifty tons. Its port is Vikkur, twenty-five miles from the sea, which, with Shah-bunder (still further eastward), seems alternately to share the trade of the delta. This season Shah-bunder is scarcely to be approached, and the next season Vikkur will perhaps be deserted. We entered the Indus by the Hujamree mouth, and disembarked at Vikkur. At the bar we had fifteen feet of water at high tide, and a depth of four fathoms all the way to Vikkur, even when the tide was out.
Khedywaree.
The Khedywaree is the next mouth eastward of Hujamree, with which it is connected by small creeks; it is shallow, and not much frequented by boats but to cut firewood.
Gora, or Wanyanee.
Of the remaining mouths of the left arm, the next is Gora, the largest of all the mouths. It derives its supply of water direct from the Sata, which near the sea feeds numerous small creeks, and is named Wanyanee. From the Hujamree we passed by a narrow creek into this mouth of the Indus. The Gora (or, as it is also called towards the sea, Wanyanee,) has every where a depth of four fathoms. It is not more than 500 yards wide, and runs with great velocity. Its course is somewhat crooked, but it pursues a southerly line to the sea, and passes by a fine village on the left bank called Kelaun. Though the Gora possesses such facilities for navigation, yet it is not to be entered from the sea by the smallest boats, from a dangerous sand bank, to which I have before alluded. It is clear that such sand banks are thrown up by the impetuosity of the stream; for the Reechel, till it was deserted by the great body of the Indus, had as large a bar as is now opposite Gora, which has entirely disappeared with the absence of the fresh water. This branch of the Indus in the last century was open to large boats; and a square-rigged vessel of 70 tons now lies near it on dry land, where it has been left by the caprice of the river.
Khaeer and Mull.
Below the Gora we have the Khaeer and Mull, mouths communicating with it. All three disembogue within twelve miles of each other. The Khaeer, like the Gora, is unnavigable. The Mull is safe for boats of 25 tons; and being the only entrance now open to Shah-bunder, is therefore frequented. The boats anchor in an artificial creek four miles up it, called Lipta, and await the flat-bottomed craft from the port, distant about twenty miles north-east.
The Seer.