1840.] Account of a Journey from Kurrachee to Hinglaj . 145 



ascent is very gentle, and its height about two hundred feet. 

 On reaching the summit, a large circular cavity, some fifty 

 yards in diameter, is seen, in which are two distinct pools of 

 unequal size, divided by a mound of earth, one containing 

 the liquid mud and the other clear water. The surface of the 

 former was slightly agitated by about a dozen small jets, which 

 bubbled up at intervals, but in the latter, one only was occasion- 

 ally discernible. A space of a few yards extended on three 

 sides from the outer crust to the edge of the cavity, which was 

 about fifty feet above the level of the pools; their sides are 

 scarped and uneven. On descending the northern face, I 

 remarked a small stream of clear water flowing from one of 

 the fissures into the plain, which had evidently only been 

 running a few hours ; the mud and water of all the pools are 

 salt. A fourth hill, situated close to the great range of Haras, 

 and distant from the rest upwards of six miles, was pointed 

 out as having a similar cavity to this one. Its color is the 

 same, and although the surface is more rounded, its summit 

 appears broken ; I regretted not having an opportunity of 

 visiting it. The name given to these singular productions of 

 nature is the " Koops, or basin of Raj Ram Chunder," by which 

 appellation they are known to all the tribes. They are said to 

 be altogether eighteen in number, seven in this neighbourhood, 

 and eleven between Kedje and Ginaddel in Mukran. Four were 

 pointed out to me, and I was told the other three were hid 

 among the mountains. Some persons with my party had seen 

 one of those in Mukran, and had heard from the Beerooees 

 who shewed them the road to it, that many others were spread 

 over the country ; he described it as throwing up jets similar to 

 the large hill here. By the Hindoos they are looked upon as the 

 habitation of a deity, but the Mahomedans state that they are 

 affected by the tide (the sea is not more than a mile distant from 

 the large one,) but this I had reason to doubt, as of the many 

 persons I questioned who had visited them at all times, not one 

 remembered to have seen the pools quiescent, although several 

 had been on the large hill when the mud was trickling 

 over the side of the basin. To endeavour to ascertain this fact I 

 placed several dry clods of earth in the bed of the channel 



