1839.] Lieut. Irwin's Memoir of Afghanistan. 871 



Attock on the Indus, to Julalpoor on the Hydaspes; it has been 

 already mentioned that some parts of the country to the left, or north- 

 east of that route, are noted for Goitres, a disease occasioned by bad 

 water, (see paragraph 89.) The soil in the greater part of this Dooab 

 but especially Pothwar, is a light yellow sand, which the rains cut 

 into deep ravines in the most irregular and curious manner ; every 

 year the existing plain grounds are thus destroyed and new ones 

 formed. Sometimes beneath the sand are seen strata of loose rounded 

 stones, or of silt, stone, and sand, and these layers are sometimes of 

 great thickness. Water in wells is near the surface, but the farmers 

 are not at the expense of digging wells for irrigating their Rubbee 

 crop, putting trust in the winter and spring rains, and the natural 

 goodness of their land. Huzara and Pukhlee have good soils of vari- 

 ous kinds, but yet inferior to Chhuchh ; they have however greater 

 command of water for irrigation. The soil of Kushmeer is generally 

 loam, and in colour black or dark brown. The district of Pamper, in 

 which alone saffron is produced, is a red clayey loam. The soil of 

 Kushmeer and the nearest hills around it, is remarkably free from stones. 

 The Hydaspes when low, is sea-green and turbid, its waters on reach- 

 ing the Punjab are of a deep coffee colour. Its alluvial matter is loam, 

 that of the Indus sand. 



94. We return to Delhi to detail the nature of the soil in the Embassy's 

 route thence to Peshawur. It becomes more and more sandy from 

 Delhi to Rewaree and Kanour. The wells are of considerable depth, 

 and the water often brackish. The country of the Shekhawuts, which 

 next succeeds, is superior in all these respects, and the fields have occa- 

 sionally a few stones in them derived from the low hills which traverse 

 this tract. Leaving it we enter a sandy plain, generally abounding 

 with sand hills. The depth of the wells increases at every stage till 

 we reach Beekaneer, where it amounts to 264 feet. The water is 

 sometimes good and sometimes brackish in various degrees. That of 

 Nathoosur is peculiarly bad. Beyond Beekaneer the desert is common- 

 ly considered as beginning. To twelve miles beyond Poogul, or sixty- 

 seven miles from Beekaneer, the same soil continues; but the sand hills 

 are higher than before. Next commences a level hard smooth clay; 

 this is locally called Chitrang, and it is only in such tracts that the 

 traveller imagines he sees lakes and rivers before him. To the west- 

 ern edge of the desert is eighty- three miles more, and about half of this 

 distance is clay, the other half sand, which appears to have been nearly 

 blown over the clay. From Beekaneer the depth of the wells gradually 

 decreases. The soil. of the desert, generally considered, is not inferior 



