1844.] Route from Seersa to Bahaivulpore. 299 



5. As regards the barren waste extending West from the Suratgurh 



to Bahawulpore, the prospects of reclaiming it are 

 Tract from the Su- . . ,, . .. . . , 



ratgurh to Bahawul- not vei 7 promising ; not that it is altogether unpro- 



lZv"^7o\l d " ctive > for luxuriant cr °P s of bajra, moot and til 

 ment— Canal propos- are ra i se( i on t h e portions of light sandy soil that 



occur here and there spread over a substrata of hard 

 clay, but these crops depending entirely on the monsoon, which is 

 uncertain, are subject to frequent failures, and the water to be found 

 in wells is at too great a depth, and too brackish in most places, to 

 be of use either for drinking or agricultural purposes. The measure 

 best calculated to change the face of a large portion of this coun- 

 try would be, the digging a canal from the river Sutlej near Roo- 

 pur, which should pass South of Bhatinda and Farid Koth, and fall 

 into the forsaken bed of an old river called the Slakro near Bhatner. 

 The line of country this canal would pass through is clear of all the rain 

 torrents from the Himalaya range, and the slope continues favorable to 

 within two marches of Bahawulpore, while the rich soil it would pass 

 through in its upper course, should amply repay the outlay. 



6. There remains to be noticed one remarkable feature in the coun- 

 Kemarkable feature try traversed to Bahawulpore, which is the traces 



in the country travers- , „ , „ „ 



ed— The deserted bed that exist in it of the course of some former river : 

 tL a s°lakroBln!' Called and as it is to the forsaken bed of this river that 

 we are indebted for the opening to us of a road through the desert, I 

 shall venture to give a more particular description of it than it would 

 otherwise deserve. On looking at a map of the desert, we find many 

 scattered hamlets and ponds and wells marked on it, which the people 

 dwelling north and south of the desert may have founded and dug 

 either for watering their cattle at graze, or for the convenience of inter- 

 communication and traffic ; but in no part of the desert, save to the 

 road from Seersa to Bahawulpore, shall we observe a continuous line 

 of villages traversing its whole extent from E. by N. to W. by S., 

 and their existence on this road must, I think, be attributed to the 

 facilities afforded for settling by the desert bed of the river before- 

 mentioned. All the villages and koths, or forts on the road, which 

 since Maroth, have been constructed within the last thirty years, stand 

 either in or close to this deserted channel, and for the reason that wells 

 dug in it are generally found to have sweet water, while the water 



