Page:Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 1 (2nd edition).djvu/258

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230
Burnes' Visit to the Court of Sinde.

south and south-west. To this place it is distinguished by the title of Aboo Seen, or Father River; and beyond this, until joined by the Punjund, or five streams, it is usually called the Roode Attock;—from this point it is exclusively spoken of as the Duryaé Sinde, or Sea of Sinde. It flows south-south-west, almost without a curve, until seventeen miles below Bhukor;—it sends off a branch called Kumburgundee and Larkhanu River, which expands into a lake at the foot of the Brahoorch Mountains. The district of Chandoohee is fertilized by this branch. Halfway between Bhukor and Sehwan the Indus receives the Khyrpoor, or Doorlee River, to the eastward. The river forms an island of some extent near the fort of Sehwan; and many minor branches disengage themselves from it, which are dry when it is not swollen. The next branch is the Fulelee, which encircles the island on which the capital of Hyderabad is built;—ten miles south-west of the city it re-unites with its mother stream. At its most eastern point it detaches the Goonee, across which Futtah All threw an embankment in 1799, and now the fresh water presses against the dam on one side whilst the tide flows up to it on the other. The river below the dam is called the Loonee or Salt River, in contradistinction to the Goonee, which signifies efficacious or useful. After the Fulelee rejoins the Indus, the latter winds a little to the eastward of south, but soon regains its predominant inclination to the south-south-west, which becomes still more westerly after passing Tattah; and, according to Pottinger, enters the Indian Ocean in one vast body; but Mr. Burnes navigated two large arms below the last-mentioned place, called the Meyraum and Bugghaur, which latter river the same author seems inclined to think is the branch navigated by Alexander, who would then have passed the Luckput Creek; and it is not impossible that Pattala, of whose identity with Tattah, or Hyderabad, even Colonel Pottinger seems very doubtful, is where the modern town of Jerk is placed; in which case the Macedonian conqueror may have navigated the Punjaree branch which passes by Laikpoor and Meerpore, which would also have brought him to the Luckput Creek, though neither of these navigable routes is contained in Colonel Pottinger's map.

The rapidity of the stream in the Indus fluctuates with the seasons, whether dry or otherwise; and the nature of the districts it runs through also seems to affect it. Above Tattah, Pottinger estimates it as usually between two and a half and four miles per hour. The waters are regular in their inundation, in their return, departure, and quantity; beginning to rise about the latter end of April, and subside early in September. The breadth of the swell varies according to the nature of the country through which the river passes. In general, Mr. Crow states that it is felt five miles from the banks on either side, and, in many parts, much more, par-