872 Lieut. Ir wins Memoir of Afghanistan* [Nov. 



to that of Beekaneer, and where the sand and the clay are mixed in due 

 proportions, is of an excellent quality. It is therefore neither the bad- 

 ness of the soil, nor the depth of the wells, as commonly imagined, that 

 causes the desert to be so thinly peopled, neither is its water worse 

 than that of the tracts to the eastward. There are several reasons to 

 think it was in former times better inhabited. It is unquestionably 

 for the interest of the British Government, that it should be utterly 

 uninhabited and impassable ; a little address and a moderate ex- 

 pense could effect this object even with a due regard to the rights of 

 the present inhabitants. 



95. The edge of the desert at Buhawulpoor is only three miles from 

 the left bank of the Ghara, and the space between them from the 

 north-west point of Sadik Khan's dominions to where the Ghara is lost 

 in the Chunab (see paragraph 32) is seldom much more than double 

 this distance. This narrow tract is of a soil not to be surpassed in fer- 

 tility. When dry its surface has a degree of whitishness perhaps ori- 

 ginating from a mixture of chalk; when watered it appears black. It 

 is deep and friable, and may be called a clayey loam or mud. The 

 Ghara when low has a whitish colour, and its water is very good. Its 

 bed abounds in quicksands, having that mixture of fine sand and mud 

 which seems calculated to form them. The rivers in general of the 

 Punjab as well as the Indus have quicksands. Beyond the Ghara, on 

 the road to Mooltan, is a tract of sandy ground, in which the wells are 

 deeper and some of the plants and other appearances of the great desert 

 occur, from which in fact it seems to have been cut off by the Ghara. 

 It extends at most but two or three days to right and left of the road 

 travelled by the Embassy ; and gradually melts into the more fertile 

 country which surrounds it. It seems to rest on clay, and the soil of 

 Mooltan has a great proportion of clay ; many of the fields give evidence 

 of salt, and in general the soil is inferior to that of Buhawulpoor. 



96. In the further progress of the Embassy from Mooltan to the 

 commencement of the hills beyond the Indus at Punecala, the basis of 

 the country appears still to have been clay, though in some cases the 

 uppermost stratum be sand. At three and a half miles from the left 

 bank of the Chunab begins the Thul of Mohummud Khan already 

 mentioned (see paragraph 29 ;) it is sand of a poor quality, but not un- 

 cultivatable. It is broadest to the north, and there too the wells are 

 deepest. In this quarter is situated Munkeera, the chief fort of Mo- 

 hummud Khan, which is thought to be secure less by the strength of 

 its own works, than the barrenness of its neighbourhood, and the scarcity 

 and badness of the water. In the route of the Embassy the wells were 



