SUNSHINE AND SNOW STREAMS. 429 



rivulet turns into a regular stream, at short notice. 

 This was well expressed by Sheikh Saadi, as recorded 

 by Major Edwardes, where he said, 



" You may stop the source of a river with a bodkin, but 

 let it run on, and it will carry away an elephant and his 

 load." * 



Torrents proceeding from highly elevated sources, 

 amidst heights heavily laden with eternal snows, possess 

 peculiar features in that they are to a great extent 

 independent of rains; the time when they are highest 

 in point of fact, generally being in the hot season. 



Being fed by the melting snows, these streams are 

 generally low at night, when an intense cold, and hard 

 frost, seals up the fountains of their supply ; many of 

 the smaller rivulets may even entirely cease to run: 

 but no sooner has the day broken than the sun's rays 

 again begin to melt the snow, and the stronger and 

 clearer it shines the heavier becomes the flood which 

 sweeps down from every ravine. On account of the 

 rarefication and intense dryness of the air, the power 

 of the sun may actually be greater than it is on the 

 plains, f 



Now as almost the whole of the water condensed 

 from the clouds during the remainder of the year is 

 at these altitudes stored up upon the mountain tops 

 in the form of snow, it will be apparent that as long 

 as these hot suns continue to shine, heavy floods are 

 certain to roll down to the plains country from the 

 snowy range. It is this that makes the freshets on 

 the Indus, the Jhelum, the Sutlej, and other rivers, 



* A Year in the Punjab, by Major Herbert B. Edwardes, 1851. Vol. 

 i., p. 203. 



t Encycl. Brit., gth Edition, Vol. xiv., p. 197. (Article "Ladak. ") 



