20-1 The Flooding of the Indus. [No. 3. 



regarding the warning with suspicion, that there was nothing 

 unusual to be observed in the conduct of the river. 



But the truth is, that there is no reason to think that any of the 

 tributaries, at the point where glaciers abound, is of importance 

 sufficient to affect perceptibly the Indus at Attok ; nor indeed is it 

 conceivable that any stream, by the subtraduction of which the 

 Indus could be sensibly diminished, could be dammed up for three 

 mouths (aud I have shewn that the time could not be much 

 shorter) ; while it is certain that if this were possible, its occurrence 

 would cause a flood far more extensive than that of the 10th 

 August last. 



The occurrence of a few cloudy days diminishing the snow melt- 

 ing, or of showery weather in the Hills, cooling the atmosphere 

 there, produces changes in the river, when alternating with bright 

 weather, far more than sufficient to disguise the cutting off of half 

 a dozen of the rivulets which feed the upper waters of the Indus. 

 The river rose last year rather early, compelling me to remove the 

 usual boat-bridge a full month sooner than in 1857, while it after- 

 wards continued for a considerable time at a moderately high level, 

 fluctuating, but not making much progress. We were thus able to 

 establish the bridge in another site, where it continued till 1st June. 

 But all that can be gathered from this is, that along the upper 

 Indus the spring of 1858 was warmer than that of the previous year, 

 but that the genial April was succeeded by cold and cloudy weather. 

 It is indeed a matter of tradition that in 1841 the river became 

 very low previous to the flood, so much so, that men used to cross 

 it by fording above Attok, and when I was collecting information 

 on the subject, they told me that when the bridge of boats was up 

 iu February, the river fell in one night several feet, so much in fact 

 that they had to remove boats from either side. I have consider- 

 able doubts as to the correctness of either story ; and, presuming 

 them both to be amplified from a real paucity of water, have still 

 no reason to think that they had anything to do with the fact of 

 one of the feeders of the river being dammed up some six hundred 

 miles off; besides that, as I before hinted, the period of storage 

 from February to May appears too short. It was also a prominent 

 part of the tradition that the water was much warmer than usual ; 



