554 Note on the Passes into Htndoostan [No. 126. 



Next below the Bunghish route, is that of the Gomul river from Dera 

 Ismail Khan. This route comes in to the Ghuzni valley from the 

 south-east, and through Zoormut, east of Ghuzni, has a communi- 

 cation also with Kabool. 



The Gomul route was followed by the late Lieut. Broadfoot of 

 Engineers, and we have a survey and report upon it. 



Dera Deen Punah, below Leyra, is the next point of the Indus, from 

 which there is a known route into Afghanistan. It is on the straight 

 line from Feroozpoor to Kandahar, and the pass is south of the 

 Tukht-i-Suleeman, the highest pinnacle of the Sulimani range. It 

 has yet been traversed by no British officer, but a route is marked in 

 most maps as laid down from native information.* 



Next below Dera Deen Punah, is Dera Ghazee Khan, the routes 

 from which place westward are equally unknown. This tract of 

 country is under the government of Sawun Mul, the Sikh soobah of 

 Mooltan, whose disposition has not been considered sufficiently friend- 

 ly, to warrant either the use of its passes, or any attempts to improve 

 our intelligence respecting them. Below Dera Ghazee Khan, the 

 Sulimani mountains take a sharp turn westward, away from the Indus, 

 and there is an indent of triangular shape, at the apex of which is 

 the Bolan Pass to Quetta. The low ground is fertile and well watered 

 under the hills, but is separated from the Indus by a sandy Desert 

 of about ten or twelve miles breadth, in which the rivers of Dadur, 

 Lehri, and Gundava lose themselves in the dry season before they reach 

 the great stream. This tract is the valley of Kuchchee. 



The notices to be obtained from history of the use made of these 

 passes respectively in the different expeditions into India, are extremely 

 scanty ; the historians generally giving only the date of departure 

 from the different capitals, and the places attacked in succession, with 

 a detail of personal adventures and exploits in the actual fights. 



Passing over the progress of Moosulman conquest through Khorasar 

 and Transoxania to Ghuzni and kabool, we find Subuktugeen esta- 

 blished at those two places, and contending with the Hindoo Raja of 

 Lahore, (Jypal,) for the possession of Lughman. The Hindoo Raja 



* It has been stated, that Lieut. H. Marsh of the Cavalry, came from Kandahar 

 to the Indus by this route, but I have never seen any notice of the line of road fol- 

 lowed by this officer. 



