1892.] H. G. Raverty —The Mihran of Sind and its ributaries. 311 
High mounds, the sites of former towns, and the substantial ruins 
of others, such as Fath-pur, 310 Uchqhh, and Shah-pur; the fact that 
the tract of country north of Shikar-pur, which is now known as the 
“ Frontier District,” is cut up, so to say, with dliorahs or old channels, and 
dhands or hollows, in which water accumulates; and that it is still 
flooded from the Xb-i-Sind or Indus for twenty miles north of Ghaus-pur ; 
all tend to confirm the statements of former historians, that the northern 
parts of Sind, as anciently constituted, lying north of Shikar-pur, and 
between Rujan and Gand-abali, contained a number of flourishing towns 
and villages, and was in a high state of cultivation, and, that the lands 
lying along the banks of the Ghar or Ghaj river used to be some of the 
most productive in all Sind. 
Only fifteen years ago an incident occurred illustrating what I 
have here stated. The waters of the Indus rose in the month of July 
some eight or nine feet higher than usual between Kin Kot and Kash¬ 
mir, which, flowing in two branches in the direction of about west-south¬ 
west, entered the ancient channel in the great depression, the so-called 
“ Sind Hollow,” and reached the district of Lar-kanah. The two 
branches having united at Khairo Garin, forty miles west of Shikar-pur, 
were joined by the overflow of rain-water from the Koh-i-Surkh or 
Rata Pahar, and the Koh-i-Siyah or Kala Paliar ranges, bounding the 
Kachchhi plain on the north, and the water from the Ghar river from 
the Miilah Pass. The united waters then continued their course towards 
the south, passing near the town of Shadad-pur, 311 and finally entered 
SIO This place was, in the time of Akbar Badshah, the chief town of the 
Mahdll or sub-district, one of twelve into which the Bakhar Sarkdr of the Multan 
Suboh was divided. The inhabitants then were Samijahs, and Zharijahs ; they had 
8050 bi'gahs of land under cultivation ; were assessed thereon in 477, 858 dams 
(equal to just 11,416 rnpxs and a-half) ; and had to furnish 200 horsemen and 1,000 
foot for militia purposes. 
311 Dr. R. H. Kennedy, Chief of the Medical Staff of the Bombay Column of 
the Army of the Indus, crossed part of this great ran or “ Sind Hollow,” marching 
from Lar-kanah upwards towards Shadad-pur, in March, 1839. He says (“ Campaign 
of the Army of the Indus,” Vol. I, page 189): “The third march brought us to 
Shadadpore : the country for the last twenty miles was more like the dry bed of a 
salt lagoon in an interval between spring tides, than an inland district.” On leaving 
Shadad-pur, he says : “ In less than half an hour we reached the desert; not an 
expanse of loose heavy sand like the sea beach when dry, as I had expected, but a 
boundless level plain of indurated clay of a dull dry earthy colour, and showing 
signs of being sometimes under xoater. At first a few bushes were apparent here 
and there, growing gradually more and more distant, until at last not a sign of 
vegetable life was to be recognized.” In another place (Vol. II, page 165) he says : 
“ Betwixt Mehur and Bang [Bhag], we crossed a singular ridge of earthy hills, 
evidently the effect of an earthquake-convulsion ; the strata of soil distinctly show? 
