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Cii. XXVIII.] SUBSIDENCE IX THE DELTA OF THE INDUS. 



09 



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Althongli tlie ruin of 



toAvns Avas great, the face of nature in tlie inland country. 



says Cax3tain Macmnrdo 



not visibly altered. In tlie 



hills some large masses only of rock and soil were detached 

 from the precipices ; but the eastern and almost deserted 

 channel of the Indus, which bounds the province of Cutch, 

 was greatly changed. This estuary, or inlet of the sea, was, 

 before the earthquake, fordable at Luckput, being only about 

 1 foot deep when the tide was at ebb, and at flood tide never 

 more than 6 feet ; but it was deepened at the fort of Luckput, 



after the shock, to more than 



feet 



loiv water.^ On 



sounding other parts of the channel, it was found, that where 

 previously the depth of the water at flood never exceeded 1 

 or 2 feet, it had become from 4 to 10 feet deep. By these 

 and other remarkable changes of level, a part of the inland 

 navigation of that country, which had been closed for 

 centuries, becaine again practicable. 



— The fort and village of 



Fort and village siihmerged. — 

 Sindree, on the eastern arm of the Indus, above Luckput, 

 are stated by the same writer to have been overflowed ; and 

 after the shock, the tops of the houses and wall were alone to 

 be seen above the water, for the houses, although submero-ed, 

 were not cast down. Had tliej been situated, therefore, in 

 tlie interior, where so manj forts were levelled to the ground, 

 their site would, perhaps, have been 

 remained comparatively unmoved. Hence 

 that great permanent upheavings and depressions of soil may 

 be the result of earthquakes, without the inhabitants being 

 in the least degree conscious of any change of level. 



A more recent survey of Cutch, by Sir A. Burnes, who waf 

 not in communication with Captain Macmnrdo, confirms the 

 facts above enumerated, and adds many important details.f 



regarded as having 



That 



examuied 



1828, and from his account it appears that, when Sindree 

 subsided in June 1819, the sea flowed in by the eastern 



mouth of tbft TnrlnH nnrl in o -Po-ixr 'U^-.-.-^r, ^ .^„x„,i „ ^. „x „r 



* Macmnrdo, Ed. Phil. Journ. iv. 106. 

 t This memoir is now in the Li- 



brary of the Eoyal Asiatic Society of 

 London. 



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