616 On the recent Cataclysm of the Indus. [No. 116, 



the words used.) All at once this state of things changed, the river 

 burst in an awful debelcle through the obstacles which had held up 

 its water somewhere along the upper part of its course, and rushed 

 down the valley in a mighty flood. The particulars regarding the effects, 

 are probably derived from native accounts. The words of the letter 

 are nearly thus : " Hundreds of villages and towns, including Khy- 

 rabad and Attock, were swept away, with thousands of human beings 

 and cattle. The Lundaye, (or Cabul river, which joins the Indus, 

 close above the fort of Attock,) had its water held up, and forced back 

 so as to inundate the towns of Monshera and Akora (situated a long 

 way up its course in the plain of Peshawur.) *' In the Huzara country," 

 probably between Durbund and Attock,) "the flood swept away artillery 

 gunsy with many hundreds of infantry and sowars ; and old Sham Sing 

 Atarewallah, a seik sirdar, had all his camp and followers carried down the 

 stream, while he was himself, with a few troops, aloft pursuing the rebel, 

 Paeouda Khan, (chief of Tuhaolee) through the hills. I have as yet 

 only heard of the course of the inundation as far as Dera Ismail Khan, 

 whence also the accounts are very distressing, and so they will conti- 

 nue to be I suppose, till it reaches the sea, for nothing else can contain 

 it. But what must have been the condition of the unknown country 

 flooded above the avalanche, since rumours of its fall have been pre- 

 valent for four months back? I conclude it must be the plains of 

 Ghilgeet. The authorities on the Indus report the very foreign ap- 

 pearance of many bodies washing down." 



So much for the particulars already received, which are only suffici- 

 ent to excite our interest about what remains to be known. Now so far 

 as I am aware, there is no flood on record at all approaching this grand 

 debacle of the Indus ; that of the Val de Bagnes, of which so graphic an 

 account has been given by Basil Hall, was confined to one of the subordi- 

 nate lateral valleys of the Rhone, while the flood of the Indus has in 

 all probability w^^shed its desolating career across the continent of India. 

 The gigantic scale of its operations can be guessed from the facts above 

 given. The town and fort of Attock are situated on a rock, well raised 

 above the river. Yet the place is here described as having been swept 

 away, with hundreds of the towns and villages ! The inundation of Akora 

 and Noushera, situated so high up the Cabul river, speaks volumes to the 

 same effect ; while the suddenness and unexpected nature of the catas- 



