128 Memorandum on the great flood of the river Indus. [No. 2, 



Memorandum on the great flood of the river Indus which reached 

 Attok on the \Q)th August, 1858. — By Captain T. G. Mo>~t- 

 gomebie, Bengal Engineers, F. B. G. S. 1st Asst. O. T. Survey, 

 of India, Sfc* 



" At 5 A. M. on the 10th August, 1858, the Indus at Attok was 

 very low. At 7 A. m. it had risen 10 feet. By 0.30 p. M. it had risen 

 50 feet, and it continued to rise till it stood 90 feet higher than it 

 did in the morning. The Cabul river continued to flow upwards for 

 ten hours." — Extract from the proceedings of the Asiatic Society for 

 September 1858, Journal Vol. XXVII. p. 366. 



The flood destroyed a large amount of property in British 

 territory both above and below Attok ; and the back water (on the 

 Cabul river) destroyed the greater part of the private property in 

 the cantonment of Naoshera. 



After the subsidence of the water, numerous reports were current 

 near Attok, viz. : that the river was still blocked up and that 

 another similar flood might soon be expected. These reports were 

 generally given out on the authority of the inhabitants far up the 

 river, who had sent down word to say that the water was still 

 dammed up. 



Such a sudden flood or cataclysm on such a gigantic scale, at 

 all times an important and interesting subject of enquiry, was rendered 

 still more so to me by the above mentioned circumstances. 



Being at the time of the flood in the territories of the Maha- 

 rajah Rumbhir Singh. I was in a favorable position for making 

 enquiries in the Upper Valley of the Indus as far as the Maharajah's 

 territories and influence extended, and I consequently made all the 

 enquiries that I could. 



On applying to the Wazeer Punnoo, the governor of Kashmir, 

 he told me that had any damage been done in the Maharajah's terri- 

 tories by a flood on the Indus, he would certainly have heard of it, 

 but up to that time he had received no report on the subject. How- 

 ever I begged him to write to all the Maharajah's officials (on the 



* See papers by Capt. Henderson and Major Becker, Journal, Vol. XXYIII. 

 pp. 199 and 219. 



