water,
is unfit for cultivation. They exist on both sides of the principal
mouths of the Indus, in the Gorabaree and Shahbunder pergunnas, which
part of the province is called by the natives "Kukralla," and was in
olden days, before the era of Goolam Shah Kalora, a small state almost
independent of the Ameers of Sind. On the left bank of the mouths of
the river these _bhulls_ are very numerous and form by far the most
fertile portion of the surrounding district. They bear a most dreary,
desolate, and swampy appearance--are intersected in all directions by
streams of salt and brackish water, and are generally surrounded by
low dykes or embankments, in order to regulate the influx and reflux
of the river and sea. Yet from these dreary swamps a very considerable
portion of the rice consumed in Sind is produced; and the Zemindars,
who hold them, are esteemed amongst the most respectable and wealthy
in Lower Sind.

To visit a _bhull_ is no easy matter. Route by land there is none, and
the only way is to go by boat, in which it is advisable to take at
least one day's provisions and water, as the time occupied in the
inspection will be regulated entirely by the state of the tide and
weather. Very difficult is it too, to land on any of these places, the
mud being generally two or three feet deep, and it is only here and
there that a footing can be secured, in the embankment surrounding the
field.

Let me now describe the mode of cultivating these anomalous islands,
floating as it were in the ocean, and deriving benefit both from it
and the mighty river itself, whose offspring they are. Should the
river during the high season have thrown up a _bhull_, the Zemindar
selecting it for cultivation, first surrounds it with a low bund of
mud, which is generally about three feet in height. When the river has
receded to its cold weather level, and the _bhull_ is free of fresh
water (for be it remembered, that these _bhulls_ being formed during
the inundation, are often considerably removed from the river branches
during the low season), he takes advantage of the first high spring
tide, opens the bund and allows the whole to be covered with the salt
water. This is generally done in December. The sea water remains on
the land for about nine weeks, or till the middle of February, which
is the proper time for sowing the seed. The salt water is now let out,
and as the ground cannot, on account of the mud, be ploughed,
buffaloes are driven