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XXXVII. Memoir on the Eastern Branch of the River Indus, giving an 
Account of the Alterations produced on it by an Earthquake, also a Theory 
of the formation of the Runn, and some Conjectures on the Route of Atexan- 
‘per rue Great; drawn up in the years 1827-1828.—By Lieutenant 
Axrrex® Burnes, of the Honourable East-India Company’s Military Ser- 
vice on the Bombay Establishment. 
PART aL. 
In the north-western extremity of our Indian possessions, and under the 
tropic, is situated the small and sterile territory of Cutch, of importance to 
the government from its advanced position, but of more attraction to the 
student of history from its western shore being washed by the waters of the 
classic Indus and from its proximity to the scene of ALEXANDER’s glories.* 
Divested, however, of these alluring enticements to enter on its history, 
Cutch is a country peculiarly situated. To the west it has the inconstant and 
ever varying Indus. To the north and east the tract called Runn, which is 
alternately a dry sandy desert and a muddy inland lake. To the south it 
has the Gulf of Cutch and the Indian Ocean, with waters receding yearly 
from its shores. 
The physical geography of such a province is full of interest, for besides 
the alterations in its fluctuating boundaries, it has of late become subject to 
earthquakes, one of which has produced some unlooked-for changes in the 
eastern branch of the Indus, and it is particularly to detail and explain these 
that I have drawn up the present memoir, though it would have been 
an amusement to myself to embrace a more extended field of inquiry. 
Cutch is at present labouring under disadvantages inflicted on it by the 
vindictive hatred of a jealous and cruel neighbouring government, for 
previous to the battle of Jharra,t which was fought in 1762, when the 
* See note A. + See note B. 
