56 MUZAFFARGARH. 1 efflorescence, or stunted shrubs of tamarisk. South of the thal plateau, the space between the rivers contracts to a width of 20 miles, more or less subject to inundation from side to side. The middle tract lies sufficiently high, as a rule, to escape excessive flooding, while it remains, on the other hand, within the reach of easy irrigation. This portion of the District, accordingly, consists of a rich and productive country, thickly studded with prosperous villages. But in the extreme south, and in some other parts, the floods from the two rivers spread at times across the whole intervening tract. On abating, they leave luxuriant pasturage for cattle ; and if their subsidence takes place sufficiently early, magnificent crops of wheat, peas, and gram are raised in the cultivated portion. The towns stand on high sites or are protected by embankınents ; but the villages scattered over the lowlands are exposed to annual inundations, during which the people abandon their grass-built huts, and take refuge on wooden platforms attached to every house, where they remain night and day till the floods subside. Numerous pools, supplied from the flooded rivers, cover the surface of the District. The Indus and the Chenab once united their streams far to the north of their present confluence. In the time of Timúr, the junction took place at Uchh, 60 miles above the existing confluence at Mithankot. Throughout the cold weather, large herds of camels, sheep, and goats, belonging chiefly to the Povindah merchants of Afghánistán, graze upon the sandy waste of the thal. The principal rivers of Muzaffargarh arem-(1) The INDUS, which forms the western boundary of the District for a distance of 110 miles. The stream, which is two miles broad in the cold weather, is swollen in the hot weather by the melting of the Himalayan snows, to such an extent as to overflow its banks far and wide. The depth of the main channel varies from about 12 feet in the cold weather to about 24 feet in the summer. The current is strong and rapid, and this, together with the tendency of the river to form islands and shoals, renders navigation by boats very difficult. The most remarkable feature of the Indus is the gradual shifting of its stream to the west. At one time, the river no doubt flowed down the centre of the thal desert. In the middle of the District are numerous villages, now far away from the Indus, to whose proper names are added terminals denoting that at one time they stood on or near the river bank, and the inland portion of the District is full of watercourses which were once beds of the Indus. (2) The Chenab forms the eastern boundary of Muzaffargarh for a length of 109 miles. This river, though locally known as the Chenáb, has received the waters of the Jehlam (Jhelum) and Ravi, before reaching this District, and is more correctly the Trináb. After it has flowed three-fifths of the distance down Muzaffargarh, it receives the united Sutlej and Beas (Bias), and becomes the Panjnad or Five
