1839] Lieut. Irwin s Memoir of Afghanistan. 7^7 



draws to a point where the five rivers are assembled in one stream, and 

 to the north-east it is bounded by the great northern mountains. 

 Within these mountains are many independent states, and also some 

 of the dependencies on Kushmeer, for instance Poonuch and Rajwer. 

 From Jelum on the Vehut to Lodhiana on the Sutluj is about 250 

 miles of road distance. The Punjab thus restricted is a country 

 universally plain. From Lodhiana to Delhi is 220 miles of road 

 distance, through a flat country ; at some distance to the traveller's 

 left, or to the south-west, begins the great Indian desert, which extends 

 to near the sea, dividing the lower Punjab and Sindh from the Rajpoot 

 states. Of these we may mention Jodhpoor to the south, and Beekaneer 

 more to the north. Bhutner lies at the northern extremity of the 

 desert, in a country not naturally unfertile. 



Rivers. 



31. Of the rivers in these countries the greatest is the Indus, some 

 have considered it as the boundary of Hindoostan to the west. Both 

 now however, and formerly, we find the Hindee race and language far to 

 the west of the Indus from its first exit from the great northern range 

 to its falling into the sea. It must be considered an unnatural arrange- 

 ment which should assign the eastern part of the narrow country of 

 Sindh to India, and the western to Persia or Bulochistan. Other 

 boundaries less simple and marked must therefore be sought for. By 

 the inhabitants of Sindh this great stream seems best known under the 

 name of the river. The Punjabees and people in general of the 

 Hindee race distinguish it as the river Sindh ; Persians and Khoora- 

 sanees either soften this into Sind, or name the river by the addition 

 of some conspicuous town on its banks, a practice not unknown even 

 to the inhabitants themselves, hence it is best known to many as the 

 river of Attoc The Afghans have called it ' Ubaseen,' that is father or 

 venerable river ; seen in their language signifying river. But if we trace 

 upwards the stream thus distinguished by them, we shall find they 

 have selected the lesser, instead of the greater and more remote branch. 

 The Ubaseen of the Afghans rises in the southern face of the great 

 northern chain only 120 miles in a NNE. direction from Attoc. About 

 ninety miles from that place it falls into the true Indus, which comes 

 more from the east. The course of the true Indus is but conjectural, but 

 may be safely said to be long and its source remote, in the table land 

 (see para. 7-) From where it leaves the lofty mountains to the sea it 

 runs in a direction 24° west of south, and though it have many 



