undred thousand square miles. We may best regard it
as composed of two very distinct tracts--one the broad triangular plain
towards the north, to which, from the fact of its being watered by five
main streams, he natives have given the name of Punj-ab, the other the
long and comparatively narrow valley of the single Indus river, which,
deriving its appellation from that noble stream, is known in modern
geography as Sinde. The Punjab, which contains an area of above fifty
thousand square miles, is mountainous towards the north, where it
adjoins on Kashmeer and Thibet, but soon sinks down into a vast plain,
with a soil which is chiefly either sand or clay, immensely productive
under irrigation, but tending to become jungle or desert if left without
human care. Sinde, or the Indus valley below the Punjab, is a region of
even greater fertility. It is watered, not only by the main stream of
the Indus, but by a number of branch channels which the river begins to
throw off from about the 28th parallel. It includes, on the right bank
of the stream, the important tract called Cutchi Gandava, a triangular
plain at the foot of the Suliman and Hala ranges, containing about 7000
square miles of land which is all capable of being made into a garden.
The soil is here for the most part rich, black, and loamy; water is
abundant; and the climate suitable for the growth of all kinds of grain.
Below Cutchi Gandava the valley of the Indus is narrow for about a
hundred miles, but about Tatta it expands and a vast delta is formed.
This is a third triangle, containing above a thousand square miles of
the richest alluvium, which is liable however to floods and to vast
changes in the river beds, whereby often whole fields are swept away.
Much of this tract is moreover low and swampy; the climate is trying;
and rice is almost the only product that can be advantageously
cultivated.

The low region lying south of the Great Plateau is neither extensive
nor valuable. It consists of a mere strip of land along the coast of
the Indian Ocean, extending a distance of about nine degrees (550 miles)
from the mouth of the Persian Gulf to Cape Monze, near Kurrachee, but
in width not exceeding ten or, at the most, twenty miles. This tract
was occupied in ancient times mainly by a race which Herodotus called
Ethiopians and the historians of Alexander Ichthyophagi (Fish-Eaters).
It is an arid, sultry, and unpleasant region, scarcely possessing a
perennial stream