Eastern Branch of the River Indus and Runn. 569 
Sando. I was amused at an opinion which the natives entertain of the 
water collected below Allah-band, that it is too salt for fish, and more briny 
than the waters of Simunder or “the great ocean.” This is singular enough ; 
but I am disposed to believe it, for they attribute it to the excessively salt 
soil of the Runn, on which this sheet of water lies; it is certain, that fish 
are not found in abundance, if at all, in the lake, though they frequent 
the river. 
It really appears a most monstrous and short-sighted policy which leads 
the people of one nation to despoil another of such a length of inland navi- 
gation as this. Had Cutch possessed a prince of some patriotism when the 
first blow was struck in 1762, it would not have been suffering the disadvan- 
tages under which it now labours, and I can only account for an energetic 
reign, like that of Far’ Musammep (which commenced thirty years 
after GuotAm SuAn’s band was thrown up) passing away without any 
exertion on his part to accomplish so desirable an object, from an anxiety 
to consolidate his usurped authority at home, and consequent dread of 
engaging in any enterprise which might lead his troops to too great a dis: 
tance from Cutch. 
The Runn. 
But to the facts which I have collected relative to the Runn and the elu- 
cidation of that singular tract. In length, the Runn extends from the Indus 
to the western confines of Gujarat for a distance of full two hundred miles, 
In breadth, from the islands, it is about thirty-five miles, and taking into 
consideration its different belts, &c., it is by no means overrated at the 
enormous space of seven thousand square miles. The whole tract may be 
truly said to be a “terra hospitibus ferox.’ Fresh water is never to be had 
any where but on its islands, and there it is scarce; it is without herbage 
on all parts, and vegetable life is only discernible in the shape of a tamarisk 
bush, which thrives by its suction of the rain water that falls near it. Itis, I 
believe, a space without a counterpart on the globe ; differing as widely from 
what is termed the sandy desert as it differs from the cultivated plain; neither 
does it resemble the steppes of Russia, but may justly be considered of a 
nature peculiar to itself. No where is that singular phenomenon the mirage 
or sirab of the desert, or, as the natives most aptly term it, dukhdn (smoke 
or vapour), seen to greater advantage than on the Runn. The smallest 
