116 RIVER SCENERY AT SUKKUR. 



empty barracks, that increase the desolate as- 

 pect of the scene. In contrast however to this, 

 the river scenery at Sukkur is superior to any 

 that I saw elsewhere in Sindh. High on the 

 opposite bank, and overhanging the Indus, 

 stands the picturesque old town of Roree, which 

 was formerly a place of commercial importance. 

 Nearly opposite Roree, in the centre of the river, 

 on a high rocky island, which seems as if it had 

 been cut off from the eastern bank by the action 

 of the stream, is the old fort of Bukkur, a 

 fortress that was much prized by the Ameers, 

 who considered it the key to Sindh, and per- 

 fectly impregnable, which it possibly might have 

 been to Sindliian assailants, though its crumb- 

 ling walls, which are commanded from both 

 banks, could not offer any resistance to Euro- 

 pean artillery. Betw^een Bukkur and Roree 

 the mighty stream of the Indus, being pent into 

 a narrow channel between two almost perpen- 

 dicular walls of rock, rushes with such intense 

 velocity, that when the river is at its height the 

 channel is impracticable for steamers, one of 

 which was nearly lost in attempting it, and the 

 depth is so great that the vessel had not 

 chain cable enou!2:h to reach the bottom. The 



