From Kurrachee to Mooltan. 279 



anywhere and "the station/' except that at the latter there 

 are a few stacks of cnt wood on a small clearance, and at the 

 former it is all jungle. A puttywallah, or watchman, keeps 

 guard on the wood, and the pilots are here obtained for the 

 nest day's run. 



November 20. Reached Kordrewallah at breakfast-time; 

 a few miles from here we pass the boundary line between Sind 

 and the Punjaub ; and here also ends the patrol line of the 

 Jacobabad warriors (Sind Horse) . 



November 21. Found the river a little slacker in its cur- 

 rents. At one o'clock reached Mulochwallah ; saw some 

 jackalls, some grey partridges, and some tiger tracks. 



November 22. Getting on faster, the stream being slack, 

 but winding amid large patches of sand-banks, much more 

 numerous than lower down stream ; the sand-patches are 

 tenanted by alligators, looking like logs of wood with pointed 

 ends, which, when they are startled, prove to be very ugly 

 heads, with large jaws and fishy eyes. Their teeth are not 

 large, but there are plenty of them. The natives don't seem 

 to mind them a bit ; and when any one — say the pilot — wants 

 to return down the river after a day's run, or some one 

 wishes to cross at a bend of the river, they inflate then- 

 goatskin (or mussick) with air, stream it, and jumping astride, 

 away they go down the road cheerily ! To-day we had a 

 fine breeze, and set sails on the steamer and flats. We reached 

 Essanpore at two p.m., and started off again at four p.m. ; but 

 there was a shoal in the river just off the wood station, which 

 brought us up — bump, oh ! — and there we stuck for an hour. 

 The pilot, in awe of the captain's wrath, fled into the woods ; and 

 I afterwards saw him mount his mussick and ride off. After 

 a time the steamer was got off, and the current, very strong 

 here, spun her round, with her flats, at a marvellous rate, like a 

 teetotum. After this, we pulled up at this station for the night. 



November 23. Started again, and stuck again until the 

 steamer was lightened, by putting what cargo she had, and 

 her fuel, into the flats. Just as we began to get on again, 

 smoke is observed down the river. A steamer sent with a 

 party of surveyors for the Indus Yalley projected line of rail- 

 way is known to have left Kotree after we did, and it is sup- 

 posed to be she. The vicinity of another vessel stimulates our 

 crew, apparently, for we steam away at a greater speed to-day. 



November 24. At daylight, up steam and away, our rival 

 after us. At seven a.m. passed Mittenkote, now sis or seven 

 miles inland, but which last year the river washed so close, it 

 used to be the station of the Punjaub Flotilla steamers. Here 

 we turn eastward, entering the Chenaub Eiver, which at this 

 point joins the Indus. Navigation becomes now more intri- 



