1841.] 



Wood's Report on the River Indus. 



523 



unless indeed it be based on the accumulated experience of years. That 

 I do not therefore crowd these pages with figures, is from a firm con. 

 viction of their inutility. They are in fact positively injurious ; for 

 when a practical man at a distance casts his eyes over the contents 

 of a table, purporting to give the soundings in a river's channel, and 

 finds the least depth to be two fathoms, he very naturally concludes 

 that a boat constructed to draw only nine feet, will navigate the said 

 river. No conclusion could be more erroneous, the reasoning is suited 

 to the equable streams of the new world ; but not applicable to the 

 ever-changing channels of our Indian rivers. To what other causes 

 can we attribute that crude digest of a prospectus for introducing 

 steam upon the Indus for commercial purposes, that lately reached 

 this country from England, authenticated by names of the first rank 

 and respectability in the mercantile world } One of the articles in the 

 proposed Joint Stock Company provided for stationing a ship of one 

 thousand tons, (an old East Indiaman,) as a depot inside the river. 

 Such a vessel could hardly come in sight of the Sindian coast. 

 Lieutenant Charles' survey of the mouths of the river has made us 

 acquainted with their actual condition, and in another part of this 

 report, what should be the draft of the Indus Steamers ;* and this 

 decision is the result of a most careful examination of the river, both 

 in its dry season and during its freshes. 



Sketch of a Reach helow Sehewan. 



* See the 8th Article in this Report. 



