THE BASIN OF THE INDUS. 523 



mark the track of the Indus river are probably else- 

 where unexampled. 



The wonderful gorge, near Iskardoh, in Little Thibet, 

 where the river bursts through the western ranges of 

 the Himalayas, which we have already described in 

 our chapter on mountains, is certainly the most marvellous 

 instance of the almost omnipotent power of running 

 water which is to be found in any part of the world. 

 But this is only one of a succession of mighty canons, 

 which this river has excavated throughout its mountain 

 track. For nearly the whole of its upper course it 

 winds at intervals through similar, though less gigantic 

 cuttings, which constitute some of the grandest pieces 

 of mountain scenery in the world. The course of the 

 torrent is here subject to tremendous floods, which at 

 times seem about to sweep everything before them 

 while at other moments, even in summer, the stream 

 is said to dwindle down to a fordable depth during 

 the night; but during the day it again swells into an 

 impassable torrent, from the melting of the snows on 

 the mountain tops. This character the river retains 

 until it enters the Panjab, near Derbend, in Lat. 34 

 25' N., Long. 72 57 / E., where it is a swift stream 

 about 100 yards wide, and of no great depth, flowing 

 through an irregular channel studded with sandbanks 

 and islands. During the cold weather it is at times 

 fordable here in many places, but its uncertain and 

 dangerous character, its liability to sudden floods and 

 freshets, still continues. It was thus that the celebrated 

 Ranjit Singh for instance, while crossing this river 

 in one of his forays against the mountain state of 

 Kashmir, about 1823, is stated as we have already 

 mentioned elsewhere, to have lost a force variously 



