360 Journey from Herat to Simla, §c. [No. 149. 



The various routes between Jellalabad and Peshawur have been 

 already minutely described. At this season of the year (June,) the 

 river route is generally followed, as being the safest and most expedi- 

 tious. Rafts are formed of splinters of wood, which hold together 

 from twenty to a hundred inflated bullock skins, and an accident 

 rarely happens during the months of May, June and July, when the 

 water is of sufficient depth to cover the rocks, which are dangerous at 

 other seasons. Near Jellalabad, the river runs in a broad bed with 

 low banks on each side ; distant hills with snow on their sum- 

 mits on either hand. The space between the foot of these hills and 

 the river, covered with villages and green fields. v Fine groves of trees 

 scattered along the banks. The stream, when I passed down, was 

 running at the rate of six or seven miles an hour. A few miles below 

 Jellalabad, the Cabool river is joined by a broad and rapid stream of 

 considerable volume, called Durya-i-Koower. The distance between 

 Jellalabad and Peshawur by the river route, is about 90 miles. This 

 distance is performed on a raft of 25 skins, impelled by two large oars, 

 in about twelve hours. Half way is the large village of Lalpoor, 

 situated on the left bank of the river, the residence of Saadut Khan, 

 chief of the Momund tribe, which is said to number 4,000 families. 

 After passing Lalpoor, the river flows for about thirty miles in a deep 

 narrow channel, walled in by precipitous rocky mountains of great 

 height. In this part of the river are most of the whirlpools and dan- 

 gerous places. One called the Shutr Gurdun, or camel's neck, 26 or 

 27 miles below Lalpoor, is particularly dreaded by the raftsmen, and 

 is considered even in the best season a place of peril. Two or three 

 miles below Shutr Gurdun, the river debouches from the mountains, 

 and enters an open cultivated country. At the village of Muchnee, 

 on the left bank, tolls are levied on rafts passing down the river. From 

 Muttee, a small village on the right bank of the river, seven or eight 

 miles below Shutr Gurdun, Peshawur is distant about 14 miles. The 

 country was overflowed for the purpose of irrigation, and the road 

 which passed through a succession of rice fields, was scarcely passable 

 to laden ponies. 



I need say nothing of the present state of Peshawur, or of the route 

 through the Punjaub from that place to Loodhiana, both having been 

 minutely described by others. 



