Sattagydia and Gandaria.

East of the table-land lies the valley of the Indus and its tributaries,
at first a broad tract, 350 miles from west to east, but narrowing as
it descends, and in places not exceeding sixty or seventy miles,
across. The length of the valley is not less than 800 miles. Its area is
probably about a hundred 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