562 Lieutenant Burnes’ Memoir on the 
question whether the tract above Al/ah-band would not now become “ the 
Saira” of this branch of the river, and to me it appeared only necessary to 
soak that tract with fresh water to adapt it for the purposes of cultivation, 
though it is to be remembered that the ground on it is quite salt, like the 
Runn in its neighbourhood. 
It is a matter of doubt whether the Amérs of Sinde have it in contem- 
plation again to throw up the bands in the P’harrdn river. At present 
they have not commenced operations, from the dread of an inundation 
similar to that of November 1826, which had nearly annihilated many of 
the villages in their dominions. Their annual crop has, however, been 
increased fourfold by that overflow which irrigated parts of the country to 
which the water had never before extended, and the inhabitants, taking 
advantage of this, transplanted their rice, and reaped a_ plentiful harvest. 
The Sindians cannot now be supposed to be actuated by that national hatred 
towards Cutch, which characterized them in the time of the CAuéras, and 
may have no immediate inducement on that account to renew the bands, but 
it is not to be doubted that the irrigated lands in Sinde, bordering on the 
P’harrdn, which formerly produced so plentifully, will not now yield an equal 
quantity without them, for however much a river running through a country 
may contribute to its fertilization, still it is clear that it must be more pro- 
ductive when that country is intersected by canals, and the water is extended 
by dams and other artificial means. 
But the rice cultivation of Saira was not the only advantage which Cutch 
derived, and will again derive, if this wished-for alteration take place, by the 
fresh water of the Indus washing its shores. ‘The pasture of the banks 
enabled them to rear numerous herds of cattle, and the whole tract below 
Lacpat, which was not used for rice cultivation, was lined with their flocks and 
herds even to Ndrayanasir, on the verge of the sea, and it is not more 
than twenty years since there were remains of the establishments of these 
people at Changasir, the ford above Lacpat before alluded to, for the scanty 
supply of water which forced itself either over or through the different bands, 
continued to raise grass for cattle, though too small in quantity to irrigate 
the lands for rice cultivation. The grain produced in the district of Sacra, 
too, is said to have been of a very superior quality, and the inhabitants of 
Cutch, before they were confined within their present narrow limits, annually 
derived three successive crops from it. 
In a military point of view I do not think that we have benefited by the 
