Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c16.s2.41

v1.c16.s2.41

In the term Eirinon of the historians of Alexander, we have the corruption of the word Ran or Rann,⁶ still used to describe that extensive fen formed by the deposits of the Luni, and the equally saturated saline streams from the southern desert of Dhat. It is one hundred and fifty miles in length ; and where broadest, from Bhuj to Baliari, about seventy : ⁷ in which direction the caravans cross, having as a place of halt an insulated oasis in this mediterranean salt marsh. In the dry season, nothing meets the eye but an extensive and glaring sheet of salt, spread over its insidious surface, full of dangerous quicksands: and in the rains it is a dirty saline solution, up to the camels' girths in many places. The little oasis, the Khari Kaba, furnishes pasture for this useful animal and rest for the traveller pursuing his journey to either bank.