1840.] Account of Khyrpoor and the Fortress of Bukur. 1205 



one of the turnings which the boatmen took an hour to circle was found 

 to be only twelve paces From the sharpness of the turns it is often im- 

 possible to carry sail more than fifteen minutes together, and even when 

 the wind is favourable for boats ascending the stream, they are dragged 

 great part of the way by the track rope. 



The Nara is navigated throughout its course four or five months of the 

 year by vessels of eight hundred muns burthen. Boats proceeding north- 

 ward always take this route in the inundations, to escape the current of 

 the Indus, which it is impossible to breast without a strong favourable 

 breeze. Those bound to Bukur re-enter the great stream about thirty- 

 five miles below the fortress, and always return by it to the ocean. 



The only part of the river where an obstacle occurred, was at the hamlet 

 of Gahe, where the men, to save time, went up a channel which the 

 farmers had lately opened by cutting an embankment to let off the floods 

 which had risen suddenly, and threatened to destroy the crops. Here the 

 stream, which has a westerly course above the village, turns abruptly 

 south, sweeping round a sharp angle with immense force, and it was only 

 after a dozen attempts that the men succeeded in dragging and pushing 

 the boat up the rapids. 



The stream rolls along a rapid volume of water from thirty to fifty 

 yards wide, but sometimes diminishes to twenty, and has an average 

 depth of about four. There are a good many ferries in the upper part 

 of its course, traversed where the current is strong, by a pont volant worked 

 by a man, who receives half a pye for conveying over a foot passenger, and 

 double the amount for a horse or bullock. 



The Nara is surrounded, where it leaves the Indus, with shoals and shift- 

 ing sands, which make it difficult for boatmen to find the entrance. It is 

 skirted in places by a wide expanse of fields unbroken by forest, and 

 clusters of cottages at intervals of two or three furlongs. The grain 

 cultivated is chiefly wheat, joowaree, and rice, and a good deal of cotton 

 and a little tobacco. I saw ten or twelve Persian wheels working 

 together, and in the gardens apple and nut trees, mangoes, grapes, and 

 limes, luxuriant rose bushes, and a profusion of white and scarlet oleander. 

 None of the fruits are remarkable for size or flavour. The soil is sand 

 or stiff clay, and canals from six to ten feet wide, cut from the Nara, 

 receive the floods and convey them through plains divided by low ridges 

 and embankments : the crops are most luxuriant, but the mode of tillage 

 slovenly, and the manure of a worthless description. 



Fifteen miles from lake Munchar are extensive low lands bare of trees, 

 and little elevated above the level of the Nara, so that banks are required to 

 prevent the river overflowing. Part is cultivated with rice and wheat, and 



7p 



