ON THE FLORA OF CUTCH. 75i> 



are often varied by patches of white strongly relieved against the ad- 

 jacent sombre colour of some mass of intrusive or overlying trap." 1 



There are no rivers that have water enough to flow throughout the 

 year. The river courses are merely channels for conveying the 

 periodical floods from the central uplands to the sea and Rann respect- 

 ively. The Khari, which rises in the Chorad hills, about eight miles 

 south-west of Bhuj, has a course of about 30 miles. Flowing past Bhuj 

 and winding its way between steep banks in places 110 feet high, it 

 keeps north and loses itself in the Rann. The largest rivers that have 

 a southern direction are the Madh and the Tera. They flow for about 

 o0 miles across the Abdasa plain and fall together into the Gulf of 

 Cutch. Owing to the fact that almost all the rocks are impregnated 

 with salts, the water of the Cutch streams is unfit to drink, and during 

 the hot season is too salt even for cattle. This circumstance has to do 

 a great deal with the character of the present flora. Water is usual I v 

 found at no great depth from the surface. Many wells being 15 to 

 45 feet deep yield snflicient supplies. The ponds, which are not un- 

 common, are mostly small and usually run dry in six months. 2 



As to the climate of Cutch we have to rely almost entirely on 

 general and insufficient data scattered here and there in various 

 descriptions of that Province 3 . Being situated along the north parallel 

 of the tropic of Cancer, Cutch is very little subjected to the rain — 

 bringing influence of the south-west monsoon. Though heavy 

 monsoon rains are experienced on the western shores and side of 

 India far to the north of Ahmedabad, they seem to neglect the 

 southern parts of Sind and Kattiawar. The 21 years preceding 18(1!) 



1 Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, vol. IX., p. 14. 

 - For farther information regarding the physical geography of catch we refer to — 

 MacMnrdo, J. — An account of the province of Kutch and of the countries lying between 

 Guzerat and the Indus in " Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay, Vol. IT.'' 

 1820. 

 Grant, C. W. — Memoirs to illustrate a geological map of Kutch in "Geological Papers on 



Western India " by Carter, 1837. 

 Raikes, S. N. — Memoir on the Kutch State, 1854. 

 Records of the Geological Survey of India, Vol. II, parts 2 and 3, 1869. 

 Wynne, A. B.— Memoir on the Geology of Cutch in "Memoirs of the Geological Survey of 



India, " Vol. IX, 1872. 

 cf. Raikes, S. N, 1. c. 



Raikes, N. S.— Brief notes relative to the Kutch State, 1854. 

 Burnes, J.— General remarks on the medical topography of Bhooj, 1828. 

 Wynne, A. B„ 1. c. 

 Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. V. 

 7 



