30 NATURAL HISTORY OP 



worked westward to 67 10", over a space of nearly 

 ten degrees. Perhaps allusion is made to the great 

 changes in the direction of the waters of North Wes- 

 tern India, in the pretty mythological tale, anciently 

 composed on the table land of Ommurkuntur ; and re- 

 lating the amours and jealous quarrel of the Nerbudda 

 with the Burraet, whose sources are not far asunder ; 

 while the course of the first is westward, that of the 

 latter turns east to join the Jumna. 



In common with other great rivers of low latitudes, 

 whose course, unconfined by rocky chains, is obliquely 

 to or from the equator, the Indus obeys a law, pro- 

 bably in consequence of the earth's daily rotation, 

 which impels the current of the stream constantly to 

 abraze its western bank, and to forsake eastern chan- 

 nels ; so also, in Arctic regions, it causes floating ice 

 ever to drift westward, and to pack against all coasts 

 facing the morning sun. The same results still occur ; 

 the current, now in contact with the Lukkee hills, finds 

 them an ineffectual barrier; for, being gravelly, they 

 are daily undermined, and, at Sehwun, the face of the 

 rock is incessantly carried away. Even the road by 

 which Lord Keene's army passed round its foot was so 

 entirely swept away by the next following freshes, that 

 in a twelvemonth after, boats sailed in deep water 

 over the very spot. 



In the first ages of the present geological disposition 

 of the earth's strata, the whole space below the Pun- 

 jaub maybe deemed to have been a shallow sea, which 

 the enormous deposits of the river constantly tended to 



