Art. VIII.—Notes on the ancient City of Balabhipura

Extract

In travelling through the eastern part of the province of Kattiawar, and in that division of it called Goheilwar (See Fig. A), after having traversed an extensive, perfectly level, and for the most part a desert plain, in a course from the north-west to the south-east, I found myself suddenly passing through a jungly tract of country, the vegetation of which, with the exception of gramina, was entirely composed of pílu bushes or trees, as they are named in the north-west of India—the ark, of the Arabs (Salvadora Persica of Linnæus). The surface of the country, through which my route had previously lain, was dotted here and there with a solitary tree of the Acacia Arabica, and consisted of a very deep alluvial soil, as evinced by the banks of several nalas and small river-courses, many of these containing a good volume of water; but from the almost complete level on which they run, all are very sluggish in their movements. Most of these streams, and also of the soil, are impregnated with salt, which in some parts covers the surface of the earth with an efflorescence like that of a strong hoar-frost. These streams all run to the eastward, to empty themselves into the gulf of Cambay; but, long ere reaching it, most of them are lost in the soft sandy soil in the vicinity of that arm of the sea.