544 Wood^s Report on the River Indus. [No. 115. 



measures, which at 42 per minute, would have required 45^ minutes 

 longer of the consumption of wood to have completed, which at the 

 rate of IJ^ maunds in 240 minutes, would have required 4^ maunds 

 nearly, which added to llj would make 15^ maunds of wood to pro- 

 duce the same quantity of steam as 9^ maunds of coal ; but it has been 

 seen, that owing to the weakness of the steam provided by the consump- 

 tion of wood to perform the same distance, required •-•, or one- sixth 

 more time nearly, a detention most injurious to the interest of Internal 

 Steam Navigation. 



SOth October, 1837. (Signed) J. H. Johnston, Controller. 



IX. — Of the Inundation. 



Like all other large rivers, the Indus is subject to a periodical in- 

 crease of its water ; during the continuation of which, it inundates a 

 large tract of country. The river rises in March, and falls in September. 

 From Mittun upwards, I have delineated the flooded district upon 

 the chart ; but in tracing their boundaries between that district and the 

 sea, I labour under the disadvantage of having to draw my material 

 as much from hearsay as personal observation. 



It may in this place be observed, that the valley of the Lower Indus 

 owes its crops entirely to the yearly swell of its river. 



The soil of Sinde is naturally poor, producing spontaneously the pro- 

 ducts of the desert ; but save within the belt of inundation, neither grain 

 for man or grass for cattle. Even here grass is scanty and coarse ; a 

 turf is a thing unknown on the banks of the Indus, and the Islands in 

 the stream below Bukkur are nothing more than naked sand banks. Two 

 consecutive crops exhaust the soil, unless manured. The natives it is 

 true liken it to gold ; but the comparison would be more just if applied 

 to the river, the cause of all its fertility. On the banks of the Upper 

 Indus the soil improves, and were such subject not irrelevant to this re- 

 port, I might proceed to adduce the proof of this assertion, and to in- 

 vestigate the cause of so apparent an anomaly. 



In some respects, the annual swelling of the Indus is attended with 

 peculiar phenomena. One year the country on its right bank is so 

 deluged, that towns and villages, though protected by strong dams, 



