578 Lieutenant Burnes’ Memoir on the 
in changing the Run in its immediate vicinity from a navigable to a shallow 
sea. But the belt of Runn between the Banni and Cutch proves this in a 
great degree to be fact ; for it is not, as other parts of the Runn, entirely 
of sand, but slightly overgrown with verdure, particularly between Lind and 
Narré, and which will no doubt change in time to Banni, and join on to 
Cutch. There are also no less than twelve rivers (small ones certainly), 
running into the belt of Runn, and it is to be supposed that they will deposit 
matter, and in time entirely fill up this portion of Runn. 
These remarks only apply to a small part of the I?wnn. It is apparent, 
in all the southern coast of Cutch, that the sea has receded, and it seems 
to be generally acknowledged, that there is a depression of the level of the 
sea throughout the globe, though there are a few places, I am aware, in 
which this would not be true. In addition to this recession, which would 
also withdraw the sea from the Runn, it is to be observed that the Jndus, 
Luni, and Banndss, would deposit sand; and the monsoon winds, which 
blow up the water from the gulf and creek at Lacpat, would likewise 
accumulate matter, which in process of time would cause a redundancy of 
sand, and convert the Runn into something like a sand-bank. ‘That the 
Runn is above the level of the sea at the present time is obvious, for it 
requires strong winds to flood it. 
The saltness of the Runn is a subject not divested of difficulty. I conceive 
it to have originated, in the first place, from the influx of sea-water, and to 
be aided by the saline particles which the different rivers bring down into it. 
All the Cutch rivers flow from a chain of mountains, which give evident 
proofs of being in progress of decomposition ; a state which at all times 
generates salt; most of these rivers, indeed, are salt water, and this is also 
the case with half the wells in the country. ‘The very fact of their flowing 
in the direction which they do, northerly, into the Runn, proves that it must 
have been once an inland sea. Some African traveller has observed, that 
the water of all rivers running into an inland sea, without an outlet, is 
invariably salt; and the Ruzn, since winds only affect it, may in some 
degree be considered a lake. So salt is the Runn, that it is often encrusted 
with it an inch deep, the water having been evaporated by the sun, and I 
have even picked up lumps of salt as large as a man’s fist, beautifully 
crystallized. The whole surrounding soil partakes so much of salt, that 
the wells which are dug to the level of the Runn, invariably yield salt 
