Travels into Bokhara (Volume 3 of 3) / Being the Account of A Journey from India to Cabool, Tartary, and Persia; Also, Narrative of a Voyage on the Indus, From the Sea to Lahore, With Presents From the King of Great Britain; Performed Under the Orders of the Supreme Government of India, in the Years 1831, 1832, and 1833

by Sir Alexander Burnes

Indus.

Between these points the Indus flows in a zigzag course, nearly south-west, till it is impeded by the Lukkee mountains, below Sehwun. The intervening country is richly watered by its meanderings, and, from the lowness of the banks, the tract is disputed by the river and its ramifications, and formed into numerous islets of the richest pasture. On the least approach of the swell, both banks are inundated and irrigated: the superfluous water often forces for itself a passage into the desert by Omercote, and joins the eastern mouth of the Indus or Koree, which passes Cutch. The channel of this watercourse commences above Bukkur, and passes four miles eastward of that place, the ancient city of Alore.

Fertility of the country.

About twenty-five miles below Bukkur, the Indus sends to the westward a branch called Nara, that washes the base of the Hala, or mountains of Beloochistan, and, after pursuing a parallel course of many miles, rejoins the river at Sehwun. Its waters are courted, and distributed by canals, which add to the blessings bestowed by nature on this flat and fertile land. The eastern bank, though less favoured than the opposite one, is highly cultivated, and most of the towns and villages stand on the verge of canals, which bounteously distribute the waters of the periodical swell, and attest the industry and assiduity of the inhabitants.

Current, depth, &c.

The river but rarely flows here in one undivided stream; with a width of three quarters of a mile, in some places, it preserves a depth of fifteen feet in its shallowest bed. There is nothing approaching to a ford in any part of its course: two hundred boats would be found at the various villages in this part of the river. The declivity on which the Indus runs to the ocean must be gentle, for above the delta it glides sluggishly along at less than two miles and a half in the hour. From Sehwun upwards, the Indus is called “Sira,” which means north, in contradistinction to the southern portion, which is called “Lar.” Mehran is a foreign term, with which the natives of the country are not acquainted.

Eastern bank of the Indus.

The immediate vicinity of the Indus is alike destitute of beauty and inhabitants. It is overgrown with tamarisk shrubs, and the villages are purposely raised at the distance of two or three miles, to avoid the calamities of inundation; yet there were an hundred wheels at work on the verge of the river. The eastern bank, from Sehwun to Bukkur, is by far the best peopled portion of Sinde; but the inhabited places which do occur are rather numerous and thriving than large and wealthy: many of them have 500 houses. This territory is subject to the chief of Khyrpoor, and is enriched by a canal forty feet broad, called “Meerwah,” which conducts, by a southerly course, the waters of the Indus from the neighbourhood of Bukkur to a distance of ninety miles, where they are lost in sands, or deposited in the fields. There are numerous other canals beside the one which I have now described; and, while their banks are fringed with villages and agriculture, they likewise afford the means of transporting, by boats, the produce of the soil. In the fair season, when dry, they become the beaten footpaths of the people, and are excellent cart-roads, preferred at all times to the common pathway, which, from the exuberance of vegetation in this country, is generally impeded by bushes.

Western bank of the Indus.

The western bank of the Indus, which is intersected by the Nara, is called Chandkoh, from a Belooche tribe of that name, and yields the greater portion of the land revenue of the Hydrabad Ameers. This branch, which leaves the Indus below Bukkur, in the latitude of Larkhana, in its passage to the main stream, forms a small lake, called Munchur, which abounds in fish. Further down, it changes the name of Nara into that of Arrul, before falling into the Indus; it is a narrow river, about 100 yards broad, and only navigable during the inundation. Numerous cuts, the chief of which is the Larkhana canal, extend the cultivation beyond its banks; and, in addition to the swell of the Indus, this district is watered by rills from the lofty mountains to the westward. The lake of Munchur is environed by fields of wheat in the dry season: its waters then partially subside, and leave a rich mould on which good crops are reared.