28 Report on Upper Sindh, [No. 133. 



During the cold months, i. e. from October until the end of Febru- 

 ary, the climate of Upper Sindh is pleasant and salubrious, frost and 

 ice occasionally occur, and vegetation assumes the appearance of win- 

 ter in a northern climate. The sun of Upper Sindh is singularly 

 fatal in its effects, not only upon the European, but the native con- 

 stitution, and during certain periods of the year, exposure to it by the 

 people of the country is as much as possible avoided. There can be 

 no doubt that the climate of Sindh is most trying to the health of 

 Europeans, and a residence of two or three years in it, would un- 

 doubtedly tend much to undermine the constitution. During the 

 subsiding of the inundations ague is very prevalent, but in its mild- 

 est form. Although Upper Sindh is not exempted from the diseases 

 and epidemics common to the East, it is yet as free from them as 

 most places, and but for its intolerable heat, would be far preferable 

 in point of climate to Lower Sindh, or the Delta of the Indus. 



No. 4. 



Our acquaintance with Upper Sindh has been too short, to allow 



of accurate statistical inquiries, and I cannot there- 

 Population. „ i - , . . . 



fore venture any remarks on this head. A census 



which is now in progress of the town of Shikarpoor would seem to 

 shew, that the estimates formed of the population of the principal 

 towns in Scinde, Upper and Lower, have been overrated; thus, 

 Shikarpoor was calculated at 50,000, its real amount being some- 

 what under 30,000. The population of Upper Sindh may be divided 

 into three classes, Hindoos, Sindhees, and Beloochees. The Hindoos 

 carry on all the trade, not only in the large towns, but are the means 

 of supplying the necessaries of life to the whole of the inhabitants 

 of the country, and few of the smallest villages are unsupplied with 

 a Banyan's shop. The Hindoos of Sindh are necessarily, from their 

 position in a Mahomedan country, a degraded and tolerated class ; 

 they are the only people, however, who amass wealth, and to this end 

 are content to suffer any degradation. So useful are the Hindoos in 

 these countries, that their lives and property are generally respected 

 by the most lawless tribes of Beloochees, and they have establish- 

 ments in the heart of the hills, at " Deerah" and " Khan," the strong- 

 holds of the Murrees and Boogties. The Soucars of Shikarpoor are 



