280 From Kurrachee to Mooltan. 



cate, sand-banks more frequent, the current stronger, and the 

 alligators larger. After breakfast, reached Ckercha, five sta- 

 tions from Mooltan. Wooding here is performed very rapidly, 

 the steamer astern stimulating every one to increased exertion. 

 We are off again in a very short time ; but it is quite plain, in 

 spite of every effort, our friend astern is overtaking us ; and 

 when we stop for the night one of the river steamers passes, 

 and makes fast close to us. 



November 25. Very slow work; boat sent away sounding 

 for the passages constantly. Reached Tibbee, the next sta- 

 tion, as our rival left it. Wooded, and went on for Buckree. 

 At night, an alarm, caused by a native deck passenger, who 

 was sick, ending his sorrows by stepping quietly into the 

 river in the dead of night, and drowning himself. Despatched 

 a boat in vain to save him, the river sweeping by like a sluice. 

 At Buckree the Sutlej joins the Chenaub ; up the Sutlej to 

 Ferozepore the water is shallower even than the Indus at this 

 time of year, there being only about two feet six inches as a 

 reliable depth. 



November 27. Reached a narrow part of the river at Sul- 

 tawgoshawur, only thirty-five miles from Mooltan ; and here 

 our steamer, our rival, and two others coming down stream 

 from Mooltan, were all stuck at a dead-lock for some time. 

 I began to despair, and sending for camels, made preparation 

 to finish my journey in that way, when at last one of the 

 steamers (our rival) was with difficulty got over the bad place, 

 and ignominiously abandoning my vessel, I transferred myself 

 to the rival ; and on the 29th reached a part of the river's bank 

 called Shershah, where there was a painted board announcing 

 the Punjaub Railway premises, and where there was a house 

 called a railway station ; and, what was more, a railway for the 

 rest of the twelve miles to Mooltan, which enabled me to 

 finish my jaunt from Kurrachee to Mooltan in as comfortable 

 a manner as could be expected. 



Two facts strike me forcibly — the length of time occupied 

 in doing six hundred miles, and the wonder that steamers 

 can't be devised to go without barges, and still carry enough 

 cargo to pay ; and the other is the contrast between tho 

 country where there is water near, and where there is not. That 

 the irrigation of India must be fairly considered as a question 

 by which its future prosperity will be affected in no small 

 degree, no man in his senses who has travelled through Sind 

 and the Punjaub can deny. The point to decide appears to 

 be, who is to do it ? — whether it is to be left to the enterprise 

 of the age, or whether the Government will undertake what 

 must necessarily be more or less a Government work, under 

 any circumstances. 



