1892.] H. G. Raverty —•-The Mihran of Sind and its Tributaries. 415 
flow west for tlie same reason, and, consequently, it turned east, and so 
met the Sutlaj, and formed the new river. 446 
The same causes that led the Sutlaj at Ruh-par to alter its 
course by degrees from south-south- west and south-west, to due west, 
in all likelihood, affected the Ghag-ghar, Sursuti, and Chitang more or 
less ; and, at last, when the Sutlaj left the westernmost or Uboh-har 
branch of the so-called “ ISTyewal N.” channels (which it certainly had 
not done up to the time of I bn Batutah’s journey to Dihli, and which 
was still flowing when Amir Timur, the Gurgan, marched from Pir-i- 
Khalis to Bhatnir), and took to that called the Dandali in the present day, 
the waters of the Hakra, lower down, beyond the junction of the 
united Ghag-ghar and Sursuti, also failed. By degrees, the Ohitang 
likewise, lessened by the canal of Sultan Firuz Shah, — and other minor 
cuttings probably, or from the same causes that led the Sutlaj to 
abandon its older channels—failed, except in time of floods, in reaching 
much beyond Bliadara, and consequently, that feeder of the Hakra could 
barely reach Bhatnir. Likewise, the waters of the united Ghag-ghar 
and Sursuti alone, were not sufficient in volume (after the Sutlaj deserted 
it), to feed the Hakra, and it ceased to be a perennial river ; but, up 
to the last century, it contained some water, and up to the present 
time (before the channel was utilized as a canal), in the rainy season, 
water still flowed in its channel as far down as Marut and Moj Garb 
and beyond. Indeed, in some years during the present century, after 
copious rainy seasons, its waters have reached Lar or Lower Sind, and 
almost to tbe ocean. 
On the other hand, as long as the Sutlaj continued to flow in an 
independent channel, its volume was sufficient to reach the channel of 
the Hakra, between Khair Garh and Sahib Garh, to which latter place 
its last independent channel can be traced, but, below that it gets 
mixed up with the old channels of the Hakra. It can be traced up¬ 
wards from thence; and the farther one goes up the more distinct it 
becomes. 446 As long as this junction continued, the Hakra was of 
445 According to the Geologist, Lyall, all rivers on being silted up betake 
themselves to the next lower level; and here, between Pir-i-Khalis and Ajuddhan 
the ground is lower than that of the last independent channel of the Sutlaj — 
the “great dandah.” This will be found to be the case with respect to all the old 
channels I have described, the easternmost, which is the oldest, being the highest 
of all. 
446 “ It has been observed of all large rivers, and been particularly mentioned 
by the same Geologist, that the silt with which their waters are charged is de¬ 
posited during the season of overflow most abundantly near the edge of the stream, 
and in proportionally smaller quantity at a greater distance from it. It thus forms 
a natural glacis, the crest of which is on the river, and the slope falls away gradu- 
