280 SINDH RAILWAY. 



period to cut off the communication from 

 Kurrachee to the river through the tidal 

 creeks altogether; besides which, the opening 

 of the harbour to English merchant shipping 

 arising from improved knowledge of its capa- 

 bilities has created a disposition to carry on 

 trade direct with England, instead of through 

 the port of Bombay. 



Moreover, Government are in a variety of 

 other ways directly interested in improving the 

 means of communication : tlie existing state 

 of matters cripples the enterprise of tlie culti- 

 vators, and in many places limits the extent of 

 cultivation to the local demand. You will re- 

 member a fact brought forward in my rej^ort, 

 on the roads in Sindh, dated the 30th March, 

 1852, that at Narree I found stacks of Government 

 grain of three years'' standing^ ivhich, though re- 

 peatedly submitted to jmUic auction^ nohody tvoidd 

 huy in consequence of the cost of conveying it to a 

 marlcet. The grain tvas eventually destroyed hy the 

 inundation of 1851. The effects of improved 

 communication on cultivation were very clearly 

 explained in a late American journal. Wheat, 

 valued in that country at 49 dollars 50 c. at 

 the nearest market, if cariied 330 miles by 



