POST SCRIPT.

CORRECTION of the GEOGRAPHY of the INDUS, and its DELTA, &c.

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INCE the Memoir was printed, fome better information respecting the country of Sindy, and the river Sinde* (or Indus) than what appears in page 80, has been moft obligingly communicated by a perfon of character, who refided fome time in that country, in the service of the Eaft India Company. The delta, and course of the river, have in confequence, been corrected in the map but the form of the coaft has undergone no change, although the position of it, has; for Ritchel and Cape Monze are removed several miles further to the fouth, while their former diftance from Jigat Point is preferved. Cape Monze now ftands in lat. 24° 55', lon. 65° 46': Ritchel, in lat. 24° 14′ (it was 24° 12′ by Capt. Scott's observations) and the mouth of Larry-Bunder river, which was the principal channel of the Indus, during the last century, and early in the present one, is in lat. 24° 44′; being within one minute of the parallel affigned it, by the India pilot.

The city of Tatta, the capital of the province of Sindy, and fuppofed to be near the fite of the Pattala† of the ancients, is fituated, according to the idea of the abovementioned gentleman, about 38 G.. miles to the north of Ritchel, and 50 to the caft of

• Mr. Wilkins makes the proper name of this river to be Seendhoo. Heetopades, page 3336. + It is impoffible to fix the exact fite of Pattala; as there are properly two deltas, a fuperior and an inferior one; exclufive of the many islands formed by the Indus when it approaches the fea. Tatta is near the head of the inferior delta; and the ancient accounts mention only one great delta, having Pattala at the upper angle of it. In Ptolemy's map (Afie Tab. XX) Pat tala is placed very far below the place, where the Indus firft begins to separate into branches.

it: fo that it ought to be in lat. 24° 50′, lon. 67° 37′; and about 125 miles from the fea, by the course of the river *. According to M. Thevenot, it is three days journey from Larry-Bunder town; which according to Capt. Hamilton, is 5 or 6 leagues from the fea. M. Thevenot's 3 days journey may be taken at 54 G. miles of horizontal distance; and the whole diftance of Tatta, from the mouth of Larry-Bunder river, at about 68 G. miles and this does not difagree with the account given above.

According to a MS. itinerary (kept by N. Whittington, no date to it) Tatta is about 180 coffes from Radimpour on the Puddar river and 228 from Amedabad, paffing through Radimpour. This last town is placed in the new map, chiefly on the authority of Mr. Hornby's MS. map of Guzerat, mentioned in page 149: and 180 coffes, laid off from it, would place Tatta about 22 G. miles further to the west, than the pofition affigned it above, provided that the general direction of the road, was straight: but it appears by the ideas of Jansen and Blaeu, who have feverally described this road, that it bends greatly to the fouth; and therefore will accord very well with the above data: and it may be concluded, on the whole, that the longitudes of Tatta and of Cape Monze, are not far from the truth. The route in queftion, goes by the village of Negar-Parkar, and by the town of Nuraquimire;' and through part of the territory of Cutch: it croffes the great fandy defert alfo.

It is not to be expected that any particular account of the number and pofitions of the several branches and mouths of the Indus, should exift, unlefs a furvey of them had previously been made. All the information that I have been able to obtain on the fubject,

Thefe are the particulars: From Ritchel to Shahbunder, about 40 miles by the course of the river, the bearing, much eastwardly. Thence to Aurungabunder, 25 more (but by land. only 10 or 12) the courfe fomewhat more northwardly. Thence to Tatta, 60 miles, NN E, or NEON. The windings of the river are fuppofed to reduce the distance, on a straight line, to 63 G. miles. The latitude of Tatta, is fuppofed to be fomething more than 24° 40′ the conftruction, according to thefe data, makes it 24° 50%

refpects three of them only; and is as follows. About 170 miles from the fea, by the course of the river, the Indus divides into two branches; of which the westernmoft is by much the largest. This branch, after a courfe of about 50 miles, to the SW, divides into two more; the fmalleft of which runs on a WSW course, to Larry-Bunder, and Darraway: and the largest, taking the name of the Ritchel river, runs on a more fouthwardly courfe to the town or village of Ritchel, on the fea coaft. (Tatta is fituated within this inferior delta, and about five miles below the upper angle of it.) The third branch remains to be mentioned, and is that which bounds the eastern fide of the fuperior delta; feparating as is faid above, at about 170 miles from the fea. It is fmaller than the Ritchel river, but larger than that of Larry-Bunder; and by circumstances, and by report, it opens into the mouth of the gulf of Cutch, nearly oppofite to Jigat Point; its courfe being fomewhat to the eastward of fouth.

From thefe data, together with the aid of the chart of the coaft, it may be collected, that the delta of the Indus is about 150 British miles in length, along the fea coaft; and about 115 in depth, from the place of feparation of the fuperior branches of the river, to the most prominent point of the sea coaft. Arrian (after Nearchus) reckons the firft diftance 1800* ftadia; and Pliny 220 Roman miles that is, he reckoned about 8 of thofe ftades to a mile.

The lower part of this delta is interfected by rivers and creeks, in almost every direction, like the delta of the Ganges: but unlike that, it has no trees on it; the dry parts being covered with brushwood; and the remainder, by much the greatest part, being noifome fwamps, or muddy lakes. A minaret, at the mouth of Ritchel river, ferves for a mark for the road; which, from the flatnefs and fameness of the appearance of the coaft, could not other

It appears, from Strabo, that Ariftobulus allowed only 1000 ftadia for the basis of the delta.

wife be discriminated. The upper part of the delta is well cultivated, and yields abundance of rice.

From the ideas generally entertained concerning the nature, and treatment of camels, it would not be expected that this delta, and especially that part of it, nearest to the fea, should be set apart for the breeding of thofe animals. It is, however the cafe; and the tender parts of the brush-wood ferve them for fodder.

It is a remarkable circumftance that the tide should not be vifible in this river, at a greater distance than 60 or 65 miles from the fea. The bores are high and dangerous in the mouths of the river: (See the Introduction page xxiv.)

The breadth of the Ritchel branch is estimated at one mile, juft above the tide and at Tatta, at only half a mile*. It is certain that the Indus is very confiderably less than the Ganges. The vei locity of its current, is estimated at 4 miles per hour, in the dry season; which I should fuppofe to be over-rated, unless the decli vity be much more than I have an idea of: though indeed, the fhort course of the tide, upwards, feems to require fome fuch caufe.

(The province of Sindy in many particulars of foil and climate, and in the general appearance of its surface, resembles Egypt the lower part of it being compofed of rich vegetable mould, and exo tended into a wide delta; while the upper part of it, is a narrow flip of country, confined on one fide by a ridge, or ridges of mountains, and on the other by a fandy defert; the river Indus, equal at least to the Nile, winding through the midst of this level valley, and annually overflowing it. During great part of the SW monfoon, or at least in the months of July, Auguft, and part of September, which is the rainy feafon in moft other parts of India, the atmosphere, is here generally clouded, but no rain falls, except very near to the fea. Indeed very few fhowers fall during the

1⚫ Hamilton reckoned it a mile broad, in 1699; and fays it was 6 fathom deep, and that the inundations are in April, May, and June.

whole

whole year. Capt. Hamilton fays, that when he vifited Tatta, no? rain had fallen for 3 years before. Owing to this, and to the neighbourhood of the fandy deferts, which bound it on the east, and on the north-west, the heats are fo violent, and the winds from: those quarters fo pernicious, that the houfes are contrived fo as to be occafionally ventilated by means of apertures on the tops of them, refembling the funnels of fmall chimnies. When the hot winds prevail, the windows are closely fhut, by which the hottest part of the current of air (that nearest the surface, of course) is excluded and a cooler part, because more elevated, defcends into the houfe, through the funnels. By this means alfo, vaft clouds of duft are excluded, the entry of which alone would be fufficient to render the houfes uninhabitable. The roofs are compofed of thick layers of earth, instead of terraces. Few countries are more un wholfome to European conftitutions: particularly the lower part of the delta.

!

Sindy extends along the course of the Indus from its embouchure to Behker or Bhakor on the frontiers of Moultan; and may be reckoned at least 300 B. miles in length, that way. Its breadth is very irregular: it may be about 160 miles in the widest part. On the NE, lie the territories of the Seiks; and on the north, thofe of the King of Candahar; on the weft is Makran *, a province of Perfia, whofe Prince is tributary to the King of Candahar. A fandy defert bounds Sindy on the east, and extends the whole way from the territory of Cutch, to the confines of Moultan; being near 550 B. miles in length, and from 100 to 150 wide. P. Wendell in his account of the Rajpoot's country (or Rajpootana) fays, that the country begins to grow fandy, immediately on the west of Agimere so that the defert must be exceedingly wide in that part. This is the fandy defert mentioned by Herodotus. See page xxii

Makran, or Mocran, is the ancient GEDROSIA. One of its modern names is Ketch or Kedge, and is often prefixed to the other, as Ketch-Makran. If Ketch was in use anciently, it is likely to have given birth to the name Gedrofia.

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