106 BL.VNFORD : GEOLOGY OF WESTERN SIND. 



possibly be an old river channel. An old channel far better marked exists 

 at Aror or Alor, about 4 miles south-east of the present river bed. There 

 is another valley traversing the range only a mile south-east from Rohri, 

 and this may also mark a former river channel ; but if so, the bed of the 

 river must have been considerably higher than it now is, or else the 

 surface must have been lower, for there is rock in place throughout the 

 breadth of the valley. In an alluvial country it is not easy to under- 

 stand that the river can have been at a higher level than it now is. 



The river channel is said to have passed by Aror, then the chief city 



, , #J . j, of Sind, and the residence of a king, prior to the 



Ancient traditions oi ° L 



Aror. middle of the tenth century of our era. The 



city is said to have been destroyed by an earthquake, and the course 



of the river changed to its present channel about A. D. 962. l It 



is probable that a river passed by Aror, but it is rather doubtful 



whether the whole of the Indus could have been confined to so narrow a 



bed. 



The flint cores found in the bed of the Indus have already been 



, , „ noticed in Chapter I 2 of this report. The ex- 

 Cores in bed or L *■ 



Indus. planation of the supposed occurrence of these cores 



in the nummulitic limestone is probably that the rock, as already 

 noticed, is much fissured, and the fissures are filled with a mixture of 

 oypsum and clay, in which, in all probability, the cores are imbedded. 

 The island of Bakhar (Bukkur) and some other islets in the channel of 

 the river Indus between Sukkur and Rohri are com- 



Bakbar. 



Rohri. posed of limestone. The same appears at Rohri, 



the section being precisely similar to that at Sukkur. The bed of Num- 

 mulites spira, var., is well seen on the west side of the hills south of the 

 town, the shells being about 1 1 inches in diameter. Rock is seen here 

 and there to the east of Rohri in the channel cut to supply water to the 

 Eastern Narra. 



1 Sind Gazetteer, p. 116 ; Bellasis, Jour. Bombay Br. R. A. S. v., pp. 413, 467 ; Manual 

 of tbe Geology of India, i, p. 418. 



2 Page 20. 



( 106 ) 



