394 Scientific Intelligence — Meteorology and Hydrology. 



from the north-east, amongst the mountains, which increased until it 

 attracted universal attention, and we began to exclaim, ' What is 

 this murmur % Is it the sound of cannon in the distance % Is Gund- 

 gurh bellowing \ Is it thunder V Suddenly some cried out, ' The 

 rivers come !' and I looked and perceived that all the dry channels 

 were already filled, and that the river was racing down furiously 

 in an absolute wall of mud, for it had not at all the colour or 

 appearance of water. They who saw it in time easily escaped. 

 They who did not were inevitably lost. It was a horrible mess 

 of foul water — carcasses of soldiers, peasants, war- steeds, camels, 

 prostitutes, tents, mules, asses, trees, and household-furniture — in 

 short, every item of existence jumbled together in one flood of ruin ; 

 for Raja Goolab Singh's army was encamped in the bed of the Indus 

 at Koolaye, three koss above Torbaila, in check of Poynda Khan. 

 Part of the force was at that moment in hot pursuit, or the ruin 

 would have been wider. The rest ran, some to large ti'ees, which 

 were all soon uprooted and borne away ; others to rocks, which wex'e 

 speedily buried beneath the waters. Only they escaped who took at 

 once to the mountain side. About 500 of these troops were at 

 once swept to destruction. The mischief was immense. Hundreds of 

 acres of arable land were licked up and carried away by the waters. 

 The whole of the Seesoo trees which adorned the river's banks ; the 

 famous Burgutt tree of many stems — time out of mind the chosen 

 bivouac of travellers — were all lost in an instant. The men in the 

 trees, the horses and mules tethered to the stems, all sunk alike into 

 the gulf, and disappeared for ever. As a woman with a wet towel 

 sweeps away a legion of ants, so the river blotted out the army of 

 the Raja. There were two villages upon an island opposite Ghazi. 

 One of the inhabitants was returning from Srikote and descending the 

 mountain ; when he came within sight of the spot where he had left 

 all he held dear, he naturally looked with affection toward his home. 

 Nothing was visible but a wide-rushing sea of mud. His house, his 

 friends, his household, his village, the very island itself, had disap- 

 peared. He rubbed his eyes in mortal terror, distrusting his sight, 

 hoping it was a dream. But it was a too horrible reality. He 

 alone, of all that busy hive of moving, struggling, hoping, fearing 

 beings, was left upon the earth." 



So far the Zemindar : and to this eloquent description of an eye- 

 witness, I need only add, that it will take hundreds, if not thousands, 

 of years to enable time to repair with its healing hand the mischief 

 of that terrible hour. The revenue of Torbaila has, in consequence, 

 dwindled from 20,000 to 5000 rupees. Chuch has been sown with 

 barren sand. The timber, for which the Indus had been celebrated 

 from the days of Alexander until this disaster, is now so utterly 

 gone, that I vainly strove throughout Huzara to procure a Seesoo 

 tree for the repair of the field artillery carriages. To make some 

 poor amends, the river sprinkled gold-dust over the barren soil, so 



