THE SINDH RAILWAY. 93 



There can be no doubt that this railway, which 

 is 110 miles in length, will exert a powerful in- 

 fluence in promoting the development of the 

 trade of Upper Sindh, as goods and produce 

 will be brought down to Kotree by country 

 boats, and there landed and at once conveyed to 

 Kurrachee by rail, thereby avoiding all the 

 difficult and dangerous navigation of the Lower 

 Indus, the annual losses of which are so very 

 large from the accidents that take place in 

 threading the narrow channels of the Delia, that 

 Major Preedy, late collector of Kurrachee, 

 declares in his report, " that if one or two boats 

 only, out of a batch of six or so, are lost, it is 

 considered a good venture." " This line too," 

 says Mr Andrew, in his valuable work on the 

 Sindh railway, " will place Kurrachee, the only 

 seaport of Sindh, in communication with the 

 Indus, the great commercial artery of the coun- 

 tries on our north-west frontier, at a point where 

 the river becomes free from the intricacies, 

 dangers, and delays of the passage of the Delta." 

 This is undeniable, and the political and com- 

 mercial advantages which may be looked for 

 from this undertaking, would seem to be not at 

 all over-estimated in the despatches of the 



