1841.] On the recent Cataclysm of the hidus. 619 



The points from which the best information may be expected, are 

 Iskardoh in little Thibet ; from Rajah Jubbar Khan, of Astore or 

 Hussorah, in the Dardoh country, opposite Ghilgeet, where the Indus 

 maizes its great bend to the south ; then from Jalkot in the Dardoh 

 country, Durbund, Torbeila, Attock, Calabaugh, and the Derajats. 

 The greatest effect of the flood will probably have been felt in the 

 neighbourhood of Iskardoh ; then near the low plains of Huramosh, Gor 

 and Poorijee near Ghilgeet, where the river bends to the south ; next at 

 Durbund and Torbeila, where the effects must have been very great ; 

 then at the point where the Indus escapes from the hills into the 

 plain of Chuch; then at Attock, and then at Calabaugh, where the 

 river escapes from the salt range. 



A few days more will likely put us in possession of many more 

 authentic particulars derived from the whole line of the Indus, and 

 should the flood turn out to have been really as grand and important 

 an affair as appears from what we know at present, some inquiry re- 

 garding it should be instituted by those who have the power. The 

 following occur to me as some of the most prominent points to be 

 inquired into — the nature, cause, situation, amount, and date of the 

 obstruction ; length, breadth, and depth of the lake formed : and length 

 of time occupied in its collection ; date of the first perceptible subsi- 

 dence of the river at Attock ; and greatest amount of reduction 

 estimated in decrease of depth, and if possible, in cubic feet of discharge 

 per second, contrasted with average discharge ; cause, period of, and 

 " modus operandiy* of the yielding of the barrier. 



Date of the debacle arriving at different points along the river, and 

 period of its continuance ; volume of water discharged in cubic feet per 

 second ; velocity and depth of the current ; greatest rise of water at 

 different points ; appearance, colour, consistence, and temperature of 

 the water ; extent of the inundation ; amount and nature of the effects 

 produced, in the destruction of land and loss of human and 

 animal life ; number and names of towns and villages destroyed ; 

 with particulars of any remarkable changes in the physical configura- 

 tion of the tract through which the flood passed ; date of subsidence 

 at different points ; appearances observed, and effects produced in 

 the Delta of the Indus, during and after the flood ; in the stranding 

 of carcases, animal or human ; timbers ; boats ; amount of deposit ; 



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