VAST 3 .] 
Otology of Kulel, Western India. 
53' 
by rugged bills, beyond a bright green patch with a few lonely palms, or other trees, near 
some village where wheat is laboriously cultivated with the aid of irrigation, and smoky clouds 
of sandy dust, raised by passing cattle, are driven before the northerly blast, from which 
those working at the weils shelter themselves by screens. 
The peculiar bare, level and extensive plain called the Itunn of Kutch is not a marsh, as 
represented upon some maps. It is periodically covered by water during the rains, and left 
dry, except a few patches, shortly after they have ceased; when those lower portions on which 
the water has lain the longest become strongly incrusted with salt ,—this frequently extending 
as far as the eye can reach:—its dazzling surface flickering in the mirage, which magnifies or 
distorts any object that may happen to be upon the horizon. The source of the salt is 
probably from sea water, this being said to overflow the Itunn, entering by the low ground 
at the mouth of the Koree river near Lukput, and also at the head of lie Gulf of Kutch, 
when the sea on the coast is raised by the continued south-westerly monsoon winds.* However 
this may be, the waters from Kutch itself are strongly impregnated with salt derived from 
the rocks, great quantities of which in solution must be carried out to the Itunn when¬ 
ever there is sufficient rain to fill the rivers. 
Although the incrustation is not very thick, being generally from one to two and a half 
inches, the quantity occurring on the Emm is enormous, and the way in which fish, msects 
and such organic remains brought in by the sea or down from the land by the Bun ass and 
other rivers are preserved by the salt is evidence of the strength of the solution, if that were 
wanting. 
Notwithstanding that traces of marine 'denudation are slight and scarce along the 
southern shore of the Rurm,- having been probably removed by subsequent atmospheric action- 
its whole aspect strongly suggests its being a gradually raised sea-bottom ; a broad and 
slightly elevated tract- called the Bunnee, lying along its southern side between Put-chum 
Isle and Kutch Proper, beiug very possibly a hank or bar formed by the rivers which flow 
from the higher land in that direction. Over this tract coarse grass, a heathery looking tufted 
plant and Babul trees arc irregularly distributed. 
Some of the results of the great earthquake by which this country was visited in 1819 
are still to he seen in the fallen walls of several of the towns, in the “ Allah Bund,”f a low 
elevation, thrown up by it, which is said to have permanently arrested the southward flow of 
the water of the Koree or eastern mouth of the Indus, and in the submerged village of 
Sindree on its left- hank; part of the ruins of the fort only being visible above the mud, 
salt and water by which they- are now surrounded, no other trace of the village remaining, 
and the basements of the building seen being buried in the silt. 
Tradition has it that this was formerly the sito of a large city surrounded by villages 
and fields, and to which the tidal ebb and flow reached: subsequently (from elevation ol 
the land probably) the river became so shoal that boats could not roach the port; the 
city was in a great measure abandoned, and another Sindree built several miles further down 
the river at a place called Siudu on the map. Here the same thing recurred, and Sindu 
was deserted, a new city rising at Lukput, mice an important place, hut now consisting of 
a- few houses in one end of the walled in enclosure. At present boats cannot come even 
so far as this, and Lukput- Bunder is at a distance of three or four miles, while the sea trade 
is conducted at Kotaisir close to the old mouth of the Koree river. IIow far the first part 
of this statement- may ho true is involved in considerable uncertainty, hut it is said there arc 
records in the Dvftter at Bhooj which would prove the accuracy of some portions of it at 
all events. 
JlJIUSSIC HOCKS. 
The Jurassic rocks occupy a largo portion of the northern half ol the province extend¬ 
ing through it almost from end to end, and also forming the hilly parts of the Runn islands 
before mentioned. The bold scarps and rugged hills exhibit numerous fine sections, showing 
plainly the structure of the country through which, notwithstanding repeated rolling undu¬ 
lations of the beds and some very marked anticlinal flexures, many recurring southerly and 
* It does not appear to what extent this has been proved, though from the aspect of part of the coast, 
it seems likely to be the case, 
t Mound of God. 
