232 Miscellaneous. [March, 



ever. As a woman with a wet towel sweeps away a legion of ants, 

 so the river blotted out the army of the Raja. There were two 

 villages upon an island opposite Ghazi. One of the inhabitants was 

 returning from Srikote, and descending the mountain. When he came 

 within sight of the spot where he had left all he held dear, he naturally 

 looked with affection toward his home. Nothing was visible but a 

 wide rushing sea of mud. His house, his friends, his household, his 

 village, the very island itself, had disappeared. He rubbed his eyes in 

 mortal terror, distrusting his sight, hoping it was a dream. But it was 

 a too horrible reality. He alone of all that busy hive of moving, 

 struggling, hoping, fearing beings, was left upon the earth." 



So far the Zemindar, and to this eloquent description of an eye- 

 witness, I need only add, that it will take hundreds, if not thousands, 

 of years to enable time to repair with its healing hand the mischief of 

 t hat terrible hour. The revenue of Torbaila has in consequence 

 dwindled from 20,000 to 50OO rupees. Chuch has been sown with 

 barren sand. The timber for which the Indus had been celebrated 

 from the days of Alexander until this disaster, are now so utterly gone, 

 that I vainly strove [throughout Huzara to procure a Seesoo tree for the 

 repair of the Field Artillery carriages. To make some poor amends, 

 the river sprinkled gold dust over the barren soil, so that the washings 

 for several successive years were farmed at four times their ordinary 

 ,.ent. It is generally believed that the accumulation of the waters of 

 the Indus was occasioned by a landslip which blocked up the valley ; 

 but this and other interesting questions we must leave for solution to 

 Mr. Vans Agnew, whose late mission to Gilgit promises so much to 

 the lovers of science." 



2. — Extract of a letter from Col. J. Low. 



Penang.Jan. \0th t 1884. 

 " I may mention that on a cursory glance at the alphabet which you 

 have kindly copied for me, I find several letters which I think I shall 

 be able to identify with others in the inscriptions here. I could not 

 manage with ink, and at last took the rather tedious and toilsome 

 process, of copying by rule and compass. 



The first inscription which I found was so copied, and forwarded 

 to the late Mr. J. Prinsep shortly before his lamented death, so that 



