1130 REPORT—1885. 
As a solution of the problem it has been supposed that the Satlaj, instead of 
turning west at Riipar and joining the Bids, once ran 8.W. by the course of the 
Saraswati, and that this is the ancient river referred to in the Vedic hymns. It 
is not impossible that the Satlaj may have once taken this course, but it does not 
appear that this view can be supported as explaining the difficulty regarding the 
Saraswati. It is as likely that this river was described in early days on imperfect 
knowledge of it, perhaps on some occasions when it was seen in flood, and that 
when the people had advanced beyond it and had become more fully acquainted 
with it, it was described more appropriately in the later tradition above mentioned. 
The Satlaj, whether flowing as at present or by the line of the Saraswati, is 
the distinct eastern boundary of a great area of hill and plain country enclosed 
between it and the Indus. These two rivers have their sources within a short dis- 
tance of each other, on the opposite sides of the same mountain mass, and they 
unite in the sonth of the Punjab, the Indus having run a course of about 1,550 
miles and the Satlaj about 950. The maximum distance between them, the 
breadth of the area they enclose, is about 350 miles. The other four rivers are 
within this ring formed by the Indus and the Satlaj. All of them have certain 
characters in common, and each certain distinguishing features of its own. ‘Their 
course among the hills ismore or less similar, the Jhelam presenting one special differ- 
ence ; and their hill course, being for the most part in channels with permanent rocky 
banks and beds, varies little from year to year. In the lower and slower part of 
their course also they are generally similar, and, like all rivers travelling through 
alluvial plains, are subject to changes. 
These alterations are of two kinds—constructive and destructive. They cut 
down their banks and they build others. The destruction of high banks is, in 
floods, by the force of the stream in direct attack, and in the low season by quiet 
undercutting at the water-level. The matter thus carried off is laid down again, 
either on the low banks on the opposite side, or in the river, raising shoals and 
islands, or across the mouths of branch channels, blocking them up and laying 
them dry. All this is familiar to people in other parts of India and in other 
countries where great rivers traverse similar plains. There are long stretches of 
the Mississippi banks which exactly resemble those of the Indus, and which the 
river treats in exactly the same way. Something can be done, and is done when 
necessary, to check the erratic movements of rivers endangering property of value. 
Protective and directing works have at different times been carried out on the 
Indus, the Ravi, and the Satlaj. Besides changes of channel and destruction of 
banks when a main stream takes to oblique courses, a river keeping a straight 
course is liable in flood to cut deep furrows in its bed. Thus the Satlaj afew years 
ago brought down one pier of the railway bridge, sunk to a depth of 70 feet, by 
scooping out the bed below it. 
The changes of river channels and of the direction of the main stream are un- 
favourable to navigation. In the Punjab steam navigation has practically been 
discontinued on all the rivers except the largest, namely, the lower Indus, and the 
combined Jhelam, Chinab, and Rayi, up to Multan. River conservancy, in the sense 
of works for keeping open certain channels for navigation, is too costly for applica- 
tion ona large scale. It is found better, where steam navigation is kept up, to 
maintain local pilotage. Though they are not well suited for steam navigation, 
there is extensive boat traffic on the Punjab rivers. And on the Jhelam and 
Chinab, near the foot of the hills from which the pine timber comes, there is con- 
stant boatbuilding for the lower Indus. 
in 1841, and again in 1858, there were very striking and serious floods in the 
indus, caused by temporary obstruction of narrow gorges in the hills. In both 
eases warning came (but was not fully uaderstood) by the river at Attak falling 
when it should haye been rising. The effect, when the barrier gave way, was very 
remarkable and very destructive. In 1858 the Kabul River was driven back by 
the immense volume and force of the released Indus, which flowed up stream as 
far as the British station of Naoshera, which was inundated and destroyed. 
The Indus, when it reaches the plains, has a temperature in winter about 5° 
below that of the air. The difference in summer, when the river is being fed by 
