India - Desert of Sind

The Desert of Sind, which Cyril Sladden refers to in a letter of 13th August 1916, is part of the Thar Desert or Great Indian Desert, which forms a natural boundary between India and Pakistan.  It is the world’s 17th largest desert.  The desert is in the eastern portion of the province of Sindh in modern-day Pakistan, the province closest to the border with India.

Cyril Sladden journeyed across the Desert of Sind in a train from Simla to Karachi, which took him two nights and a day.  He was not impressed with the journey, as he described in a letter of 13th August 1916.  Before the partition of the sub-continent in 1947, there used to be several trains running across what is now the India-Pakistan border, including the Sind Mail which was probably what Cyril travelled on.