S40 



On the Geology of CutcTi. 



[Oct. 



saline nature, always sufficiently nioist to prevent its particles being 

 drifted. During the prevalence of the south-west winds, however, so 

 much water is blown up its eastern inlet by the Gulf of Cutch, and, at its 

 western extremity, by the eastern branch of the Indus, as to cover its 

 whole surface ; augmented by the freshes, which, at the same time, come 

 down the Loonee and Eunass rivers, and the numerous small streams 

 which intersect the northern coast of Cutch. At those seasons, the 

 Runn has all the appearance of a sea, and is passable only on camels, 

 and, in some seasons, with difficulty. It has been described as the dried- 

 up bed of a sea^ but it is not easy to account for its drying up, unless 

 we suppose a general depression of the ocean. We must, therefore, look 

 to other causes. 



In several parts of the world, particularly in the Baltic, there are un- 

 deniable proofs of a gradual rising of the land; and, in time, parts of that 

 sea miglit be converted into a tract similar to that of the Runn.* It 

 does not become me to inquire whether this gradual elevation is due to 

 a series of so minute elevatory movements as to be unnoticeable, except 

 from the effects which subsequent measurement proves them to have pro- 

 duced, or from a gradual expansion by volcanic heat. But in Cutch we 

 have evidence of movements within a very late date, and every reason to 

 bciieve that similar ones have occurred at various periods. The earth- 

 quake of 1819 is known to have produced a remarkable change on the 

 •western extremity of the Runn, by throwing up a mound 50 miles in 

 length, 16 in breadth, and 18 feet high; and by depressing an adjoining 

 tract, so as to convert it, from a cultivated district, into a large salt la- 

 goon. As the changes in level, thus effected, have, however, been de- 

 tailed in other papers, I shall merely observe, that when I was at Luck- 

 put in January, 1834, very little if any change had occurred since Capt. 

 Burnes' visit, in 1828 ; except that the Sindians had repaired all the 

 bunds across the river, and thus, by preventing further supplies of fresh 

 water, the lagoon had assumed much the same appearance as previous 

 to thef eshes of 1828. 



I w^as also informed by a boatman, who constantly plied up and down 

 from Ullah- Bund to the sea, that between Sindoo and Sindree, there is 

 a bank, six miles broad, covered by only one foot of water ; and as there 

 is no channel through it, the boatmen are obliged to get out and haul 

 the boats across the bank, after which they follow the windings of the 

 channel to Ullah-Bund. It would therefore appear that this portion 



* See Mr. Lyell's Memoir, oa the proofs of gradual rising of the laad in Sweden. Phil. 

 Trans. 1835, p. 1 et seq. 



