Eastern Branch of the River Indus and Runn. 567 
compare it to nothing so correctly as a canal, nor does its breadth, when a 
little way up, destroy the resemblance, being only sixty-six feet. 1 might 
have extended my journey higher up than I did, but after reaching 
the shallow water, and falling in with a boat belonging to the first Sindian 
village, Raoma ca bizar, I judged it more prudent to say for myself non 
amplius ibis than to encounter any of the subjects of the Amirs, I therefore 
retraced my steps by land to Allah-band. 
The natural band, so called, is certainly the most singular effect of the 
earthquake of 1819. To the eye it does not appear more elevated in one 
place than another, and being covered with a saline soil, has the appearance 
of the Rwnn on all parts. I have been credibly informed that it extends 
much farther than I before stated, and that it can be traced eastward 
towards the Pacham island, a distance of twenty-four miles ; westward as 
far as Ghuri, a distance of eighteen miles, which would make its whole 
length upwards of fifty miles. That there must be some foundation for the 
extent of it eastward is clear; for there is an elevated mound, about a mile 
broad, on the road from Luna to Raoma ca buzar, sixteen miles south of 
that place, in the middle of the Runn, which is made the halting ground in 
wet weather, and which was not there prior to the earthquake of 1819. 
The elevation of Allah-band prevents rain-water settling on it and I am 
more inclined than ever to view it as a tract which might be very easily 
brought under cultivation. A little to the eastward of the mouth at Allah- 
hand, 1 observed the remains of a band which had been thrown up by 
Fates MunAmMMen, to prevent the water of the Caira-nalla flooding the road 
between Cutch and Sinde,—one of the many memorials of that public-spirited 
and enterprising chief. It is, of course, now useless, for the road is not 
open during the monsoon between the two countries. 
The grand alteration which had taken place in this variable country 
was the entire change of the sheet of water above Sindri from fresh to salt. 
The charm which had drawn me here had therefore vanished, and the pros- 
pect of Cutch regaining once more the fertile parganah of Saira seemed 
more distant than ever: every thing, in fact, save the channel through 
Allah-band had reverted to the state it was in before the inundation of 
1826, and the greater body of water, and its agitation by the winds, 
gave the whole the appearance of a great inland sea, bounding the horizon 
on all sides. ‘The decayed tamarisk, and other stunted bushes, which for- 
