180 Account of the Lower Derdjdt. [No. 3. 



ed there, and which also in a measure may be said to be more 

 closely connected with Eoh and its people than the sister Dera 

 which may be considered almost a portion of Afghanistan itself, 

 Bunu and Murwat being included in it. 



The district or zillah of Dera Ghazi Khan is about a hundred 

 and ninety miles in length with an average breadth of about thirty. 

 It is bounded east by the Indus and west by Roh. The land is 

 quite level and bespeaks its origin, which appears to have been 

 formed by two separate and distinct operations — the subsidence, or 

 rather deposit, of mud brought down by the river on one side, and 

 earthy matter combined with small pebbly stones washed from the 

 bills on the other, mixed here and there with patches of sand or 

 triturated sand-stone. 



Thus there are two different descriptions of soil brought from 

 two different ranges, that from the Indus consisting of rich mud 

 levigated very fine from the distance it has been brought, and 

 capable of producing the more valuable crops, such as indigo, 

 cotton, sugarcane, etc ; whilst the other having come but a short 

 distance is precisely similar in composition to the parent hills, and 

 consists of a succession of layers of sand and clay of a coarse grain, 

 the former predominating. In some places, this debris has become 

 so hard that it might easily be mistaken for stone. The produce 

 from this soil consists almost entirely of Bajra (Holcus spicatus), 

 and Juwar (Holcus Sorgum), two hardy species of grain that will 

 grow in almost any description of land. 



The same causes of detrusion being in constant operation, these 

 two soils are supplied with water from the same sources as they 

 themselves proceed, the rich deposit of the Indus being well irri- 

 gated by means of canals from April to October, during which 

 months this river may almost be called a sea, and from a few Per- 

 sian wheels. The poorer soil is dependent on, and scantily supplied 

 by the small hill streams of which there are numbers, but only after 

 falls of rain which are uncertain ; on all other occasions they are 

 with few exceptions, quite dry. The Sanghar pergunnah, the most 

 northern division is, however, more bountifully supplied than the 

 other parts of the district, having a small river of its own, which 

 coming from a greater distance, taking its rise on the eastern slope 



