1204 Account of Khyrpoor and the Fortress of Bukur. [No. 108. 



In July and August the river pours down floods of water over the rocks 

 at short intervals with angry violence, and casts up waves a mile and a 

 half below Bukur with a noise that can be heard a distance of several 

 miles. It frequently dashes boats in pieces, and drowns people bathing. 

 In 1839 it thrice carried away the pont volant connecting the fort with 

 Sukhur, and sacrificed the lives of two men employed to replace it ; and 

 the ferry boat that left Sukhur every morning for Roree lost about a mile 

 and a half in the transit, which it accomplishes in the cold months in about 

 seven minutes. 



Bukur is the only pretty spot on the Indus in its course through Sind. 

 The growth of timber is less luxuriant than at Gouahatee, the principal 

 town of Assam, but the broad and rapid stream with rocks frowning over 

 it, and the picturesque groves and islands, remind the traveller forcibly 

 of that beautiful and unhealthy spot. The view of the town of Roree 

 from the rampart is a fine subject for the pencil of an artist, and embraces 

 on the north a small island, which the Moslem and Hindoo have endowed 

 with a sacred character. A shrine and tombs, terminating in numerous 

 gay spires of coloured porcelain, cover another island below the fort, and a 

 third lower down the stream forms the abode of a solitary anchorite, who 

 has lived there many years on the donations of pilgrims. Fruitful date trees 

 mixed with the mango, plantain, and pomegranate, line the shores of the 

 stream for miles, and flocks of pelicans, remarkable for the whiteness of their 

 plumes, are seen in the summer months sailing majestically on the current. 



Note on the rivers Nara and Arrul in North Sind. 



The Nara ranks first among the streams of North Sind that receivetheir 

 waters from the Indus, and spreads fertility over a district inferior in 

 wealth and importance to none in the Ameer's dominions. I ascended 

 the stream in June 1839 in a vessel of seven hundred muns burthen, 

 and as the country it runs through has only been visited by two or 

 three European travellers, I have thrown together a few notes on the 

 voyage, which occupied a fortnight. 



Nara signifies a snake in the Sind dialect ; and the river richly deserves 

 the title, from the extraordinary sinuosity of its course, equalling, if it does 

 not surpass, that of the Goomtee in Oude. From the point where it leaves 

 the Indus, about thirty-five miles below Bukur, to its junction with lake 

 Munchar, is about fifty miles in a direct line, but nearly one hundred and 

 twenty by the course of the stream. The distance across a belt of land in 



the army crossed in the middle of February. Another bridge over the western 

 channel, connecting Sukhur with Bukur, stood till the end of March, when the floods 

 destroyed it. 



