Geographical Collections. 443 
Jadoon, Seherwal, Goojur, Jat, Tuar, Chohan, Bhadoria, Kutchweha, Sengar, 
Boondela, each in associations of various magnitudes, from the substantive state 
to the republic communes between the Chumbul and Cohan.” 
Having thus sketched the central portion of Rajast’han, or that eastward of 
the Aravulli, Lieut.-Col. Tod gives a general view of that to the west, conduct- 
ing the reader over the T’hulca Teeba, or sand-hills of the desert, to the valley 
of the Indus. : 
“¢ Let the reader again take post on Aboo, by which he may be saved a painful 
journey over the T’hul.* The most interesting object in this arid region of 
death is the ‘ salt river,’ the Looni, with its many arms falling from the Aravul- 
li, to enrich the best portion of the principality of Jodpoor, and distinctly mark- 
ing the line of that plain of ever shifting sand, termed in Hindu geography Ma- 
roost’hulli, corrupted to Marwar. 
The Looni, from its sources the sacred lakes of Poshkur and Ajmer, and the 
more remote arm from Purbutsir, to its embcuchure in the great western salt 
marsh, the Rin, has a course of more than three hundred miles. 
In the term ‘ Erinos’ of the historians of Alexander, we have the corruption of 
the word ‘ Run’ or ‘ Rin,” still used to describe that extensive fen formed by the 
deposits of the Looni, and the equally saturated saline streams from the southern 
desert of Dhat. It is one hundred and fifty miles in length, and where broadest, 
from Bhooj to Buliari, about seventy: in which direction the caravans cross, 
having as a place of halt an insulated oasis in this Mediterranean salt-marsh. 
In the dry season nothing meets the eye but an extensive and glaring sheet of 
Salt, spread over its insidious surface, full of dangerous quicksands, and in the 
rains it is a dirty saline solution, up to the camel’s girths in many places. The 
little oasis, the Khari Caba, furnishes pasture for this useful animal, and rest 
for the traveller pursuing his journey to either bank. 
It is on the desiccated borders of this vast salt marsh that the illusory pheno. 
menon, the mérage, presents its fantastic appearance, pleasing to all but the wea- 
ried traveller, who sees a haven of rest in the embattled tours, the peaceful ham- 
let, or shady grove, to which he hastens in vain : receding as he advances, till the 
sun in its might dissipating these ‘ cloud-capp’d towers,’ reveals the vanity of his 
pursuit. 
Such phenomena are common to the desert, more particularly where these ex. 
tensive saline depositions exist, but varying from certain causes. They are well 
known to the Rajpoots by the name of Lee-Kato, or winter castles, because 
chiefly visible in the cold season; and Lieut.-Col. Tod beheld the appearance from 
the top of the ruined fortress of Hissar, with unlimited range of vision, no object 
to diverge its ray save the miniature forests, the entire circle of the horizon, a 
chain of more than fancy could form, of palaces, towers, and these airy ‘‘ pillars 
of heaven,”’ terminating in turn their ephemeral existence. But in the deserts of 
Dhat and Oomrasoomra, where the shepherds pasture their flocks, and especially 
where the alkaline plant is produced, the stratification is more horizontal, and 
produces more of the watery deception. 
From the north bank of the Looni to the south, and the Shekhavat frontier to 
the east, the sandy region commences. Bikaner, Jodpoor, Jessulmer, are all 
sandy plains, increasing in volume as you proceed westward. All this portion 
ef territory is incumbent on a sandstone formation. Soundings of all the new 
wells made from Jodpoor to Ajmer yielded the same result, sand, siliceous depo- 
sits, and chalk. 
Jessulmer is every where encircled by desert, and that portion round the capi- 
tal might not be improperly termed an oasis, in which wheat, barley, and even 
rice are produced. The fortress is erected on the extremity of a range, of some 
hundred feet in elevation, which can be traced beyond its southern confines to the 
ruins of the ancient Chotun, erected upon them, and which tradition has preserv- 
* T’hul is the general term for the sand-ridges of the desert. 
