524 SUDDEN FLOODS ON THE UPPER INDUS. 



estimated at from 1200 to 7000 horsemen, swept away 

 by the sudden coming down of a flood. * 



These tremendous inundations, which are liable to 

 occur at any moment, and which never can be foreseen 

 or guarded against, together with the inaccessible 

 nature of a great portion of its banks, (which for hundreds 

 of miles consist of lofty and precipitous cliffs), render 

 this river in the highest degree valuable as a line of 

 defence, from a military point of view. Owing to its 

 turbulent character, boats cannot in general be used 

 upon its upper waters; and the usual native way of 

 transportation to and fro, from time immemorial, has 

 been by means of a " Massak " or inflated skin, 

 when the river had to be crossed during the period of 

 high water. For a great part of its course also, for 

 the same reason, this river cannot be bridged, except 

 at a few points, and then only by enormously solid 

 and expensive works of engineering skill. 



One of these places is the celebrated Attock 

 Bridge, just below where the Indus, at a point about 

 870 miles from its source, receives the Kabul River, 

 which brings down with it the waters of Afghanistan, 

 in another swift stream of about the same volume 

 and character as the Indus, at their point of junction. 

 Attock in the Rawal-Pindi district, in Lat. 33 53' 15" N., 

 Long. 72 1 6' 44' E., f is the first point of great 

 importance upon the Upper Indus, in British territory ; 

 it was here where in former days the main trunk 

 road to Peshawar crossed the river upon a bridge of 

 boats; which was however always most insecure, and 



* The Imperial Gazetteer of India, by Sir W. W. Hunter, Vol. 

 vii., p. ii. (Article "Indus River"). 



f Ibid., Vol. i., p. 381 (Article "Attock"). 



