of 1819, the course of the Indus
was very unsettled, and at length, in 1826, the river threw a vast body
of water into its eastern arm, that called the Phurraun, above Sindree;
and forcing its way in a more direct course to the sea, burst through
all the artificial dams which had been thrown across its channel, and at
length cut right through the "Ullah Bund," whereby a natural section was
obtained. In the perpendicular cliffs thus laid open Sir A. Burnes found
that the upraised lands consisted of clay filled with shells. The new
channel of the river where it intersected the "bund" was eighteen feet
deep, and forty yards in width; but in 1828 the channel was still
farther enlarged. The Indus, when it first opened this new passage,
threw such a body of water into the new mere, or salt lagoon, of
Sindree, that it became fresh for many months; but it had recovered its
saltness in 1828, when the supply of river-water was less copious, and
finally it became more salt than the sea, in consequence, as the natives
suggested to Sir A. Burnes, of the saline particles with which the "Runn
of Cutch" is impregnated.

In 1828 Sir A. Burnes went in a boat to the ruins of Sindree, where a
single remaining tower was seen in the midst of a wide expanse of sea.
The tops of the ruined walls still rose two or three feet above the
level of the water; and standing on one of these, he could behold
nothing in the horizon but water, except in one direction, where a blue
streak of land to the north indicated the Ullah Bund. This scene
presents to the imagination a lively picture of the revolutions now in
progress on the earth--a waste of waters where a few years before all
was land, and the only land visible consisting of ground uplifted by a
recent earthquake.

Ten years after the visit of Sir A. Burnes above alluded to, my friend,
Captain Grant, F. G. S., of the Bombay Engineers, had the kindness to
send at my request a native surveyor to make a plan of Sindree and Ullah
Bund, in March, 1838. From his description it appears that, at that
season, the driest of the whole year, he found the channel traversing
the Bund to be 100 yards wide, without water, and incrusted with salt.
He was told that it has now only four or five feet of water in it after
rains. The sides or banks were nearly perpendicular, and nine feet in
height. The lagoon has diminished both in area and depth, and part near
the fort was dry land. The annexed drawing, made by Captai