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Tibet, and hence the objections to the former road must have been to its difficulty rather than its circuitousness. Little knowledge is to be gained of either country, but they are known to be poor. Great Tibet extends far to the east from Kushmeer, while the little lies west of that country. Little Tibet is as yet quite independent, except that a few of the low situated villages are now subject to the governor of Kushmeer. South-west of little Tibet, on the banks of the upper Kishengunga, is the independent territory of the Durds, which is very little known.

29. The delightful valley of Kushmeer has already been accurately described by Forster. West of it lies the district of Moozufferabad, abounding in low hills, and beyond it is Pukhlee, which consists partly in hills of considerable height, and partly in a plain or valley lying on the left bank of the Indus. South of it is Chhuchh, and south-east Huzara, of which both are plains. The former lies opposite the lower part of the plain of Peshawur, while Pukhlee is opposite to Bhooner. South of Chhuchh is the country of the Khatirs, and beyond them that of the Uwans, Dhuns, Gheps, and other tribes. The eastern part of this Doab of the Indus and Vehut is chiefly occupied by Pothwar, a country now in subjection to the Sikhs, but the exact limits of which are not easily assigned. A range of hills divide it from Huzara and the Khatirs. This Doab, as before observed, has numerous hills, and though low, they are sometimes very difficult. Where they end to the south begins the country of Mohummud Khan of Lya, which is here sandy and approaching to a desert. This and the other tracts as far as the mouth of the Indus are sometimes known by the name of Lumha, which means in the local dialect, 'south.' The territories of Mohummud on this side the Indus consist of high sands more remote from the river, and a lower and more fertile tract by its banks. The former is named Thul, the latter Kuchhee, both descriptive terms. Of the Kuchhee the southern part at least must be considered as in Sindh. Towards the angle of this Doab to the south the Thul is lost, and all the lands are low, moist, and fertile.

30. The whole of this Doab of the Vehut and Indus has now no name in general use. That of Sindhsagur given it by Akbar, is known only to the readers of the Ayeen Akbery, nor are any of the names given by him to the Doabs of the Punjab in common use. It seems doubtful whether that of the Vehut and Indus is to be considered as part of the Punjab, which many consider as restricted to the space included between the Vehut and Sutluj. To the south-west it

draws to a point where the five rivers are assembled in one stream, and to the north-east it is bounded by the great northern mountains. Within these mountains are many independent states, and also some of the dependencies on Kushmeer, for instance Poonuch and Rajwer. From Jelum on the Vehut to Lodhiana on the Sutluj is about 250 miles of road distance. The Punjab thus restricted is a country universally plain. From Lodhiana to Delhi is 220 miles of road distance, through a flat country; at some distance to the traveller's left, or to the south-west, begins the great Indian desert, which extends. to near the sea, dividing the lower Punjab and Sindh from the Rajpoot states. Of these we may mention Jodhpoor to the south, and Beekaneer more to the north. Bhutner lies at the northern extremity of the desert, in a country not naturally unfertile.

Rivers.

31. Of the rivers in these countries the greatest is the Indus, some have considered it as the boundary of Hindoostan to the west. Both now however, and formerly, we find the Hindee race and language far to the west of the Indus from its first exit from the great northern range to its falling into the sea. It must be considered an unnatural arrangement which should assign the eastern part of the narrow country of Sindh to India, and the western to Persia or Bulochistan. Other boundaries less simple and marked must therefore be sought for. By the inhabitants of Sindh this great stream seems best known under the name of the river. The Punjabees and people in general of the Hindee race distinguish it as the river Sindh; Persians and Khoorasanees either soften this into Sind, or name the river by the addition of some conspicuous town on its banks, a practice not unknown even to the inhabitants themselves, hence it is best known to many as the river of Attoc. The Afghans have called it 'Ubaseen,' that is father or venerable river; seen in their language signifying river. But if we trace upwards the stream thus distinguished by them, we shall find they have selected the lesser, instead of the greater and more remote branch. The Ubaseen of the Afghans rises in the southern face of the great northern chain only 120 miles in a NNE. direction from Attoc. About ninety miles from that place it falls into the true Indus, which comes more from the east. The course of the true Indus is but conjectural, but may be safely said to be long and its source remote, in the table land (see para. 7.) From where it leaves the lofty mountains to the sea it runs in a direction 24° west of south, and though it have many

windings, it takes few great sweeps. As far as Attoc it is a rapid river, but at Kalabagh, distant thence 80 miles, it is very slow and still; it is no longer confined on both sides by hills, though to its right are sometimes found hills, and assumes all the well known characters of a river flowing through a champaign country and yielding soil. At Kuheree after having been joined by all the waters of Afghanistan, it is in the ebb season about 1000 yards broad, and where deepest twenty-one feet deep, with a current of two and a half miles an hour. Not far from Mithundakot it receives from the left the Punjnud, in which are collected all the waters of the Punjab, but which is yet much inferior to the Indus. After this junction, that river probably exceeds the Oxus in quantity of water.

32. The Hydaspes is the most westerly of the five rivers of the Punjab. This name originally imposed by the Greeks, is an evident corruption from Vidusta or Velusta, its ancient name in the country, and which the natives of Kushmeer still retain; by the Punjabees it is called Vehut, which the people of our provinces change into Behut; strangers in general usually name it the river of Jelum, from a town of that name built on its left bank in north latitude 33°. Here is a famous ferry, and in the ebb season it may be forded, though with some difficulty. Here too the Punjab may be said to begin, for in the northerly directions are mountainous tracts. The Hydaspes rises in the valley of Kushmeer, and having a slow current in deep muddy banks, soon becomes navigable. Before leaving the valley it joins from the north the Lar river, so called as intersecting the district of that name. After leaving Kushmeer the Hydaspes becomes rapid and unnavigable. At Moozufferabad it receives from the right the Kishengunga, a far inferior stream rising in little Tibet. Various mountain torrents now add their waters, and arriving at Jelum it has gained almost its utmost size. Until it reaches Pind-Dadun Khan, it is at intervals confined by hills on its right; at Rusheed poor it falls into the Acesines, and near Ahmed poor the joint river receives the Hydraotes. The Acesines as being the largest and centrical gives its name to the three, which thus united in one stream pass Mooltan, lying about six miles from the left bank; and at Sheenee Bhukhuree, fifty-six miles from that place, is their conflux with the Ghura, which contains the two eastern rivers of the Punjab. The five rivers thus assembled are called Punjnud. The Punjnud had formerly but a short course before it joined the Indus, and perhaps the term was not then used; but in consequence of an extraordinary rise of the rivers about twenty years ago, their channels were changed, and the Punjnud now runs for about fifty-one

miles parallel with the Indus, which at length it joins opposite to Mithundakot.

In

33. The Acesines is certainly the largest river of the Punjab. ancient times, as we are informed by Aboolfuzl, it was called Chunderbhaga, from its being formed of two mountain streams, Chunder and Bhaga. The name Sandabilis used by the latter writers on India among the ancients, seem derivable from Chunderbhaga, but the etymology of Acesines is now obscure. The inhabitants of its bank at this day though not ignorant of the ancient appellation use not it, but Chunkâ, which we and the Persians have changed to Chunab. This great river rises in Kishtwar, a dependency of Kushmeer. There is little reason to think that any of the rivers of the Punjab rises beyond the great mountains in the table land. The Acesines is forded with difficulty even in the ebb season. The Hydraotes was formerly, in the country, called Irawutee, and now Ravee. It is by far the least of the five rivers.

34. To it succeeds the Hyphasis, anciently called by the natives Bypasha, and now Beak or Beas, and lastly the Sutluj. The Sutluj was by the Greeks called Hesudrus. Its ancient name was Shutoodr, and in Peshawur it is to this day usually called Sutloodr; it is inferior to the Acesines, but seems equal to the Hydaspes; yet did the Greeks call the joint stream of the Hyphasis and Hesudrus by the name of the former, a much inferior stream. At present both names are lost, and the river formed of them near Feerozpoor is first called Neelee, and afterwards Ghara, or Ghuloo Ghara; it is no where fordable even in the ebb season, but both its branches are. We are informed by Aboolfuzl that in his time it separated into a number of branches at some distance below its formation. At present, although it have like other rivers of a champaign country small nullahs or branches, it no were sends off a considerable part of its waters. As before mentioned, it falls into the Acesines, nor is there any reason to think that when Major Rennell composed his map and memoir, it held a different course; yet has that excellent geographer rejected Arrian's authority for this. fact, without assigning any reason.

35. Between the Jumna and Sutluj are various small streams, very important in a military point of view. The Kughur and some others fall into the Sursootee, a river the course of which has long been a problem. The late inquiries entirely confirm that account which is given in Franklin's life of George Thomas, by which it appears to be lost near Bhutner. There is however a tradition that in former times it passed to the south, and spread itself over the wide expanse of level hard clay in the centre and west of the great Indian desert.

36. By far the greatest tributary of the Indus from the right is the river running under Ukora and Noushuhra in the plain of Peshawur. Captain Wilford has called it the Lundkee Sindh, or little Sindh, a term partially used in the country; but it is to be regretted that in this as in very many other cases, rivers have no proper names as such, and distinct from the towns which may be on their banks. This river joins the Indus less than a mile above Attoc, but on the opposite side. It does not appear probable that it has ever passed under the name of the river of Attoc. Before the junction both rivers are fordable, but after it no longer so. The Indus is the larger in quantity of water as being more rapid, but the channels seem equal. The Ukora river drains a very extensive and various country. Its sources may be divided into western and northern. The most remote of the western are in the mountains which bound the valley of Cabul, which is watered by three principal streams. The least which rises to the south or south-western runs through the capital; there afterwards joins it another from Ghorbund, and still lower that of Punjsher, the largest of the three, and which rises in Hindookoosh; other small streams contribute their waters from the right and left, but the rapidity is such that with all these additions the river is not navigable even by rafts until it join the stream of Lughman, which rises in the Kaper mountains to the north, and intersects that province. Although probably inferior in quantity of water, a gentler current admits of navigation on it by rafts before the junction.

37. Five miles east of Jellalabad joins from the north the Kashkar river, which is a rapid stream, and supposed to contribute three times the quantity of water brought by the united rivers of Cabul and Lughman; for about fifty-four miles the navigation of the river formed of these three streams is interrupted by no obstacle, yet are boats used in one place only (Dhukka) and there for ferrying merely; for about thirty-two miles further, to Micknee, occur at intervals, rocks, whirlpools, and cataracts, which are reckoned up to the number of thirty-two. The river in this space pierces the secondary range of hills already mentioned (see para. 11.) A passage down the river is at no season impracticable on rafts, but it is safest in the flood season, for although the violence of the stream be then increased, greater depth of water removes all danger arising from many of the rocks. The upper Mihmunds who live chiefly on the left of the river along this dangerous tract, take advantage of the difficulties of the traveller to rob him or

extort a ransom.

38. From Micknee to the Indus the river flows with a moderate

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