'■ XXv 



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Oh. XXVIII.] EFFECTS OF THE EAETITQUAKE OF CUTCH. 



the sea- water to spread rapidly. The Eunn is also liable to 

 be overflowed occasionally in some parts by river-water : and 

 it is remarkable that the only portion which was ever highly 

 cultivated (that anciently called Sayra) is now permanently 

 submerged. The surface of the Runn is sometimes encrusted 

 with salt about an inch in depth, in consequence of the 

 evaporation of the sea-water. Islands rise up in some parts 

 of the waste, and the boundary lands form bays and promon- 

 tories. The natives have various traditions respecting the 

 former separation of Cutch and Sinde by a bay of the sea, 

 and the drying up of the district called the Eunn. But these 

 tales, besides the usual uncertainty of oral tradition, are 

 farther obscured by mythological fictions. The conversion 

 of the Eunn into land is chiefly ascribed to the miraculous 



saint, by name Damorath (or Dhoorun- 

 nath), who had previously done penance for twelve years on 

 the summit of Denodur hill. Captain Grant infers, on various 

 grounds, that this sainf flourished about the 11th or 12th 

 century of our era. In proof of the drying up of the Eunn, 

 some towns far inland are still pointed out as having once 

 been ancient ports. It has, moreover, been always said that 

 ships were wrecked and engulphed by the great catastrophe ; 

 and in the jets of black muddy water thrown out of fissures in 

 that region, in 1819, there were cast up numerous pieces of 

 wrought iron and ship nails.^ Cones of sand 6 or 8 feet in 



Hindoo 



time formed on these lands.f 



We 



must not conclude Avithout alluding to a moral phe- 

 nomenon connected with this tremendous catastrophe, which 

 we regard as highly deserving the attention of geologists. It 

 is stated by Sir A. Burnes, that 'these wonderful events 

 passed unheeded by the inhabitants of Cutch;' for the region 

 convulsed, though once fertile, had for a long period been 

 reduced to sterility by want of irrigation, so that the natives 

 were indifferent as to its fate. Now it is to this profound 

 apathy which all but highly civilised nations feel, in regard 

 to physical events not havin 



fT an immediate influence on 



^' Capt. Burnes' Account. 



t Capt. Macmiirdo's Memoir, Ed. Phil. Jonrn. vol. iv. p. 106. 



