536 FALLING BANKS. 



it has fallen in once, undermined by the river, though 200 

 yards from the bank; in one day 100 yards went down, on 

 a strip along the bank of perhaps a mile." "The old Indus 

 is a devil when he takes a freak into his head." "A line 

 of battleships may be floating in midstream at breakfast, and 

 you may dine on the same spot, the same day, on dry land ! 

 All these things are great difficulties." * 



At Hyderabad, where Sir C. Napier was when he 

 wrote thus, the river is very wide and swift, the flood 

 sweeping down at a rate "of 4 to 5 knots an hour" 

 according to the estimate of his steamboat captains, 

 and the breadth of the current was " from 600 yards 

 to 6 miles. The stream however eternally changes in 

 depth, in breadth, and even in course." The banks 

 average from 4 or 5 to 20 feet in height on one side 

 of the river, along this part of its course, and where- 

 ever the stream sets against them they are con- 

 tinually falling away: the opposite side is generally 

 a dead flat. " The banks fall in fast" (says Sir Charles) 

 " hundreds of tons have done so as we passed. " f 



These extracts give in brief about as clear an idea 

 of this wonderful river as could well be conveyed in 

 a few sentences. From Hyderabad to the sea, a 

 distance of about 1 1 o miles, its character continues 

 much the same, and it flows all the way through a 

 monotonous expanse of perfectly flat country. Sir 

 Charles Napier, however, considers this country " very 

 difficult for war ; a dead flat yet without a view : banks 

 of 'nullahs' and jungles entirely intercept sight." 

 The Beloochees, he explains, used to hide in these 



* Life of General Sir Chas. Napier, by Lt.-Genl. Sir W. Napier, 

 Vol. iii., p. 146. 



\lbid., Vol. ii., pp. 199 & 200. 

 Ibid., 1857, Vol. ii., p. 362. 



