198 Journal of a voyage from [March, 



member of this family is now a fugitive at the court of the Bikdnir 

 raja. 



The morning of the 4th being a halt, we made a short excursion 

 into the desert with the intention of looking for floricans and antelopes : 

 the former, as well as the leek and bustard, are very numerous where 

 the desert approaches near to the river ; but they are much more fre- 

 quently put up in the stunted tamarisk bushes which crown the sand 

 hills within the skirts of the desert, than in the tamarisk coppices 

 nearer the river. After crossing the first ridge of sand-hills, the 

 highest of which might measure sixty feet, we came in sight of a 

 level plain of hard soil extremely bare, with only here and there a 

 small mound of shifting sand, and extending for several miles till the 

 eye was arrested by what appeared to be a ridge similar to the one 

 on which we stood. One could have fancied that this tract had 

 recently been usurped from the river by the desert. We learned from 

 the people with us that the whole of it is usually cultivated after a 

 favorable rainy season, when it produces plentiful crops of the smaller 

 kind of grain on which the inhabitants of this country chiefly subsist. 

 Owing to the unusual drought of the last five years, it had remained 

 a waste. The ridge on which we stood was the site of what had 

 been an extensive town now buried many feet under the sand ; — the 

 soil between the sand hillocks was covered with particles of burnt 

 brick, and I was able to trace the ruins of houses for upwards of a 

 mile along the ridge. These have, no doubt, arrested the sand in its 

 progress when it is carried in volumes by the south-west monsoon 

 towards the river, and may account for the high and very abrupt 

 appearance of the skirts of the desert at this point. 



After a short walk in the sand, rendered disagreeable by a dread- 

 fully scorching sun, we returned towards our boats. The Daudputras 

 who accompanied us as guides were highly amused at our style of 

 sporting, which they termed jarida-tor, and only becoming a shikdri by 

 profession. We were little less amused at their strange jargon and 

 at the readiness of their sporting equipments. Their weapon is the 

 rifle with the curved stock common throughout Affghdnistdn and the 

 countries west of the Indus. The length of the barrel varies, but is 

 never much longer than that of our muskeg. They have a great con- 

 tempt for our use of small shot and for small game, which they only 

 pursue with the hawk. The flesh of the hog-deer and antelope is 

 esteemed a great dainty. In pursuit of the latter a Daudputran will 

 take his provisions for three days, mount his camel, and sally forth 

 in the hottest season ; when, to use their own expression, " to face the 



