568 Lieutenant Burnes’ Memoir on the 
merly protruded their withered tops, and which had grown up in this land 
since it became one of desolation, had disappeared under the waves, and 
the sailors did not, as before, follow the windings of this once-fruitful river, 
but bent their course by the nearest line to their destination. The channel 
through Allah-band, however, did contain fresh water, which was, of course, 
the water of the Indus, and when the north-westerly winds set in, this may 
again make a slight impression on the Sindri lake, but never such a one as 
was brought about by the inundation of 1826. 
The traffic between Lacpat and Pallia, as well as Allak-band, had not 
been discontinued, though necessarily less than last year, when the greater 
extent of navigable tract gave speculation a greater scope. I learnt that 
there were upwards of a dozen flat-bottomed boats belonging to Raoma, and 
also that the Miétra-nar or channel has been lately preferred, during the 
monsoon, for sending merchandize to Sinde, it being a better route than 
that by Cotrt to Lah, where, from the prevalence of mud, the camels slip, 
injure the goods, and are besides rendered useless ever after.* I ascertained 
from eye-witnesses, that even so late as January 1827 boats plied with mer- 
candize from Zacpat as high up the river as Amercote,—a fact of which, on 
my first visit, I had many doubts.t Amercote has never been visited, I 
believe, by any European; the natives describe it as a small brick fort, 
with walls as low as Lacpat, sixty or seventy miles above Raoma ca bazar, 
and fourteen days’ sail from Lacpat.t It is situated two cés eastward of a 
branch of the Indus called Acra nalla (Nalla Sancra ?), which is only filled 
during the floods of the river, so that I should infer the influx of water, in 
this branch of the Indus, to be chiefly from the arm that leaves the parent 
stream above Bhacar, and which separates Sinde from the desert extending 
to Ajmir. 
The shallow part of the river is still without alteration, and it has struck 
me, that its continuation in this state proves forcibly that the ground about 
Sindri has been lowered ; for, on the northern extremity, there is the high 
land of Allah-band, and on the southern, the shallow part of the river or 
* See note K. 
+ Ihave just ascertained that this passage was open in May 1829, and that boats had passed 
from Amercote to Lacpat. 
{ See note L. 
