1190 Account of Khyrpoor and the Fortress of Bukur. [No. 108. 



chiefly made at Shikarpoor and Roree, and a common one with a cotton 

 top and silk sides costs a rupee. Common shoes of brown leather are 

 made every where at from four to sixteen anas a pair. They are inferior 

 to those of Buhawalpoor, and the people are unacquainted with the art of 

 embroidering them. Manufactories of paper and gunpowder are esta- 

 blished in all the large towns. The best paper factories are at Shikarpoor 

 and Larkhanu, but produce paper of inferior quality to that of Kashmeer 

 and Delhi. 



Dromedaries and asses constitute the principal means of conveyance. 

 The duty on grain is often levied on the load, and merchants to save 

 money overload their cattle, and put 800 lbs. on a camel and 250 on an ass. 

 A fine camel will carry this weight easily, but six hundred weight is an av- 

 erage burthen on a long journey, and a female carries one hundred pounds 

 less. The latter is only employed in case of necessity. The best saddle camels 

 come from Kuchee and Jussulmeer, and sell in Khyrpoor at from 100 to 

 150 rupees, and baggage camels at from 30 to 60 rupees. These were the 

 prices before the British approach ; they are now almost double. Camels 

 are ridden on a journey by people of rank, and carry their clothes, provi- 

 sions, and a servant armed with a sword and matchlock. Merchandise is 

 brought overland from India and central Asia exclusively on the camel, as 

 ' it is the only animal that can endure the heat and fatigue of the desert in 

 the summer months. It finds nourishment in the most inhospitable spots, 

 and performs a stage of twelve and fifteen miles with ease. Caravans 

 travel at night in the hot months, and the camels are left to browse in the 

 day-time, but in winter the day is devoted to the journey, and the night to 

 repose. These animals are not used to carry swivels, as in Rajisthan, but 

 they turn mills and water-wheels. The Sind camel is the species with one 

 hump, or Arabian camel, usually called the dromedary, and the small breed 

 * of Khyrpoor is not capable of supporting much fatigue, nor of lifting the 

 load a good camel of western India will carry. Disease, hard work, and 

 poor diet occasion a great mortality among them every summer.* The 

 lower classes have a large number, and cannot afford them grain, and they 

 feed in the wilds onjuwasee, and other nutritious shrubs. These depend on 

 the rain, and in seasons of drought, such as 1837 and 1838, the animal is 

 reduced to a state of great misery, and numbers perish. Large herds are 

 pastured by a single peasant, whose maintenance is almost the only charge 

 on the proprietor. 



Part of the Thur, or Indian desert to the south-east of Khyrpoor, belongs 

 to the Ameers of Hydurabad, and is celebrated for a very superior des- 



* During the hot months of 1839 the camels of the British Commissariat at Sukhur 

 died at the rate of one per cent. ? 



