300 Route from Seersa to Bahawulpore. £No. 148. 



of wells dug at a distance from it either North or South, is usually 



brackish. 



7. The deserted bed of the river alluded to in the foregoing para- 



_ ,. . . graph is known as far East as Seersa by the name 



Particular descrip- ° J 



tion of the channel of of Slakro Ban, and is pointed out by old inhabi- 

 the Slakro Ban. ,.' . - , » . , . . 



tants as distinct from the smaller channels in it, 



confined within which, the Guggur river now flows. The distinction 

 continues to a few miles West of Raneea, whence to Sooratgurh the 

 whole breadth of Slakro is distinctly marked by numerous elevated 

 sites of villages on its banks, although the banks themselves now ap- 

 pear low and ill-defined. At Bannee, the Slakro is joined by the dry bed 

 of the War nali, and at. Manak, four miles east of Sooratgurh, by the dry 

 bed of the Chittang river. From Sooratgurh to Anopgurh its course 

 is well defined by strongly marked lines of high sand hills ; those on the 

 south bank being more conspicuous and uninterrupted than those on 

 the north. After leaving Sooratgurh it bears but the one name of Slakro 

 Ban ; the names of its feeders, the Guggur and Chittang, being un- 

 known. From Anopgurh to Chapao and Kalepahar, its banks and 

 course are less easily traced ; its bed spreads considerably, and divides 

 into branches, exhibiting large expanses of flat hard soil entirely bare, 

 called by the natives of the country, Chitrang or Duhar, and which, after 

 the sun has risen high above the horizon, have the appearance of sheets of 

 water, displaying all the deceptive and varying images of the Mirage. 

 The breadth to which the bed of the Slakro attains at this part of its 

 course is such as to favor the idea that it was a larger river than 

 the Sutlej, which it may have resembled in the lowness of its banks, 

 and in its winding and slow current ; opposed to the conclusion of 

 its having ever been a permanent stream, is the fact of its principal 

 known feeders, the Guggur and Chittang, having been ascertained 

 to be merely rain streams, taking their sources from within the lower 

 range of the Himalaya. A glance at the map of the Upper Provinces 

 will, however, shew the numerous streams by which the whole country 

 between the Sutlej and the Jumna is drained off into the bed of 

 the Slakro, and it is possible that some of these streams formerly pos- 

 sessed a more permanent character, and that their sources may not yet 

 have been traced. Even if not permanent, the body of water accumulat- 

 ed in these streams in former years may have been sufficient to have 



