312 H. G. Raverfy— The Mihran of Sind and its Tributaries. [Ex. No 
the Narah branch of the river and the Manehhar lake. A vast area of 
country was flooded in the Shikar-pur. Lar-kanah, and Mihar districts ; 
and upwards of five hundred villages, great and small, were flooded, and 
many substantial buildings swept away. 
It therefore may be assumed that it is not beyond the range of 
possibility, that, some day, the Ab-i-Sind or Indus, may leave its present 
channel and choose a new one, notwithstanding that it has not altered 
very materially for nearly a century, but a slight obstacle might bring 
about a great change. 812 
ing that they must originally have been watery deposits on a level surface bursting 
upwards and elevated by volcanic action. See note 307, page 305. Two parallel 
ranges of hills appear here, as at Lnkky [Lakhhi] ; but these do not exceed four 
hundred feet in height, and seem entirely composed of the silt of the Indus, or what¬ 
ever inland sea once flowed over these vast levels : with the exception of these 
ridges, the whole plain from Daudur [Dhatlar] to Sukkar [Sakhar] is one uniform 
flat of the same character. 
Masson, who travelled in Sind some years previous to the annexation of the 
country, mentions (Yol. II, page 130), that latterly, the inundations of the Indus 
had increased westerly, and that, near “ Dera Ghaibi,” which is nearly forty miles 
to the southwards of Khairo Garhi, mentioned above, “is a branch of the Indus,” 
(page 132.). 
312 We may judge of the vast changes which must have taken place in the lapse 
of many centuries in the tracts lying in and under the south-eastern parts of the 
range of Mihtar Suliman, or Koh-i-Siyah, or Tor Ghar, or Kala Roh, and the outer 
and lower range of Koh-i-Surkh, Sor Ghar, or Rata Roh, the tracts in which the 
Mari and Bughti, and other Baluchis now dwell, in which the Dawi and Naghar Afghans 
previously dwelt, and likewise in the parts still farther west. Al-Idrisi refers to 
marshy places west of the Ab-i-Sind between Kashmur and Sharu-san or Siw-istan, the 
modern Sihwan ; and the Ara’ish-i-Mah-fil, a more modern work, states, that between 
Bakhar and Siwi, nearly one hundred and fifty miles to the north-north-west, the 
towns and villages are often laid waste through the Ab-i-Sind flowing from the 
south towards the north [sic. in Mss.] at intervals of some years. For half this 
distance towards the north and north-west, between Bakhar and Siwi, the half 
nearest the latter has now few villages to be laid waste ; for the country has been 
for more than two centuries, a howling desert, over which, for four months together, 
the deadly simum blows, and in the other half, nearest Bakhar, the villages and 
towns are not numerous; but, in both portions, the ruins of several ancient towns 
and villages are even still to be traced. These statements contained in the Ara'ish- 
i-Mah-fil, are confirmed by the statements of Mir Ma’sum of Bakhar, one of the 
historians of Sind, already referred to, who describes the state of that part in his 
day. 
We read in the native historians—the originals I mean—of these parts being 
in ancient times well cultivated and flourishing, and of numerous gardens, parti¬ 
cularly around Siwi of the Parni Afghans, now, or very lately, a complete waste. 
Shah Beg Khan, the Arghun Mughal, would scarcely have selected Siwi as his future 
place of residence, when under the necessity of evacuating Kandahar, and previous 
to his conquest of Sind, in preference to Kwatah ( vul . “ Quetta ”) and Kalat-i-Ni- 
