Eastern Branch of the River Indus and Runn. 557 
mountains of Baluchistan, while to the eastward it has a low sandy arid 
desert, by which its waters, when they have once overflowed their banks, 
would sooner reach the sea than by the regular course of the river. 
The cause of the sudden overflow of the Indus is stated to have been 
the pressure of water on one of the banks of the river, which had been 
always low, and was formerly raised by artificial means, and called the 
Arrore-band, though it had actually nothing of the nature of the other 
bands, and merely served to keep the water of the main trunk of the Indus 
in its course to the sea. Iam given to understand that this band is situated 
somewhere between that point of the river after it had received the Panjab 
rivers, below Uch, and its entrance into Sinde at Bhacar, and if I judge 
rightly, it is in a straight line and nearly due north of Bhij, the capital of 
Cutch, distant about four degrees of latitude, or two hundred and forty 
miles. If I am correct in this surmise, it is not difficult to account for the 
late overflow of the river, as water which runs in a diagonal direction, such 
as the Indus, the course of which is about south-west, would certainly force 
for itself a passage due south, if the banks of the river did not completely 
hem it in, which does not appear to be the case. That the course of the 
water would always be as it has turned out, is in my mind certain, for the 
channel through Aliah-band is in a straight line from Narra in Cutch about 
thirty-five miles due north, and the water which came down in 1826 over- 
flowed opposite Narra, and has left pools to this day ; and it will be observed 
that the river changes its course below Sindri, that is, opposite Narra, 
sweeping off to the south-west to avoid the hilly country of Cutch, and 
reaches the sea by the flat marshy tract west of Lacpat, which gives a very 
satisfactory reason for the water overflowing where it did, Immediately 
after the earthquake, too, the water extended from Allah-band towards 
Narra for a distance of twenty miles, and there was a water-communica- 
tion the whole way for some days after; the guns of Sindrt were even 
brought in boats to within two miles of Narra. Had this continued, it 
would have compensated in some degree for the loss of the direct land-route 
to Sinde by Sindr?, which by its shortness served to expedite the arrival of 
merchandize in the country, but at present it is neither navigable nor to be 
passed by land, from the accumulation of mud. 
The floods of the Indus commence in April from the melting of the snow 
in the Himalaya Mountains, and the river decreases to its usual level by 
September. It is to be remarked, therefore, that the Arrore-band, which 
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