DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15172#0353
CHAP. XVII.
THE RUN OF CUTCH.
317
which is a tract, I believe, without a counterpart in
the globe. In length, the Run extends from the
Indus to the western confines of Guzerat, a distance
of about 200 British miles. In breadth, it is about
thirty-five miles; but there are, besides, various
belts and ramifications, which give it an extent of
about 7000 square miles. It is accurately delineated
in the map. The whole tract may truly be said to
be a " terra hospitibus ferox ;" fresh water is never
to be had any where but on islands, and there it is
scarce ; it has no herbage, and vegetable life is only
discernible in the shape of a stunted tamarisk bush,
which thrives by its suction of the rain water that
falls near it. It differs as widely from what is
termed the sandy desert, as it does from the cul-
tivated plain: neither does it resemble the steppes
of Russia; but may be justly considered of a nature
peculiar to itself. It has been denominated a marsh
by geographers, which has given rise to many
erroneous impressions regarding it. It has none of
the characteristics of one: it is not covered or
saturated with water, but at certain periods ; it has
neither weeds nor grass in its bed, which, instead
of being slimy, is hard, dry, and sandy, of such a
consistency as never to become clayey, unless from
a long continuance of water on an individual spot;
nor is it otherwise fenny or swampy. It is a vast
expanse of flat, hardened, sand, encrusted with salt
sometimes an inch deep (the water having been
evaporated by the sun), and at others, beautifully
crystallized in large lumps. So much is the whole
surrounding country corrupted by this exuberance
THE RUN OF CUTCH.
317
which is a tract, I believe, without a counterpart in
the globe. In length, the Run extends from the
Indus to the western confines of Guzerat, a distance
of about 200 British miles. In breadth, it is about
thirty-five miles; but there are, besides, various
belts and ramifications, which give it an extent of
about 7000 square miles. It is accurately delineated
in the map. The whole tract may truly be said to
be a " terra hospitibus ferox ;" fresh water is never
to be had any where but on islands, and there it is
scarce ; it has no herbage, and vegetable life is only
discernible in the shape of a stunted tamarisk bush,
which thrives by its suction of the rain water that
falls near it. It differs as widely from what is
termed the sandy desert, as it does from the cul-
tivated plain: neither does it resemble the steppes
of Russia; but may be justly considered of a nature
peculiar to itself. It has been denominated a marsh
by geographers, which has given rise to many
erroneous impressions regarding it. It has none of
the characteristics of one: it is not covered or
saturated with water, but at certain periods ; it has
neither weeds nor grass in its bed, which, instead
of being slimy, is hard, dry, and sandy, of such a
consistency as never to become clayey, unless from
a long continuance of water on an individual spot;
nor is it otherwise fenny or swampy. It is a vast
expanse of flat, hardened, sand, encrusted with salt
sometimes an inch deep (the water having been
evaporated by the sun), and at others, beautifully
crystallized in large lumps. So much is the whole
surrounding country corrupted by this exuberance