208 The Flooding of the Indus. [No. 3. 



level. At the time the occurrence took place the river was about 

 half level, so that the rise which ensued in 7i hours was 55 

 feet nearly. This rise was of course greatest at first, and during 

 the last hour or two very gradual. About 10 o'clock the rapid 

 increase ceased, and when I then crossed the river (not without 

 danger) it was about 6 or 7 feet lower thau the maximum height 

 which it attained. This would give for the 4 hours a perpendi- 

 cular rise, on the mean, of 12 feet per hour. I was close to the 

 bank during the whole time, and though more intent on saving the 

 boats &c. than on watching the progress of the water, can give an 

 approximate conjecture as to the rate at which the river in- 

 creased. During the first hour it rose about 26 feet, second 12 feet, 

 third 7 feet, fourth 4 feet. At first it came welling up quite quietly, 

 but very rapidly, not less for a little time than a foot per minute. 

 This of course did not last very long, for as the width, the depth 

 and the velocity increased, so did the discharge, and while the rise 

 wa» very obvious till about 10 a. m. it then ceased to strike a tran- 

 sient observer. The w T idth meanwhile at the narrowest part at 

 Attok was a little over 1500 feet, the breadth before the flood came 

 down having been about 800. I have not had an opportunity of as- 

 certaining what the rise was at Torbela and above it, but it must 

 have been in the general greater than at Attok ; that is, in places 

 with the bed as narrow, and the banks as steep and immoveable, 

 and with the egress as confined, a greater rise will have taken place ; 

 for below Torbela lies the Chuch plain, sloping in comparison gently 

 to the river. Over this ground the flood-water widely extended, and 

 gradually returned, while the general direction of the Indus and 

 of the Cabul river a little above their junction is almost directly 

 antagonistic, and the Indus flood, keeping in a great measure its 

 course, rolled over the stream of the Cabul river and filled up its 

 channel and the adjacent low ground to a length of about 30 miles, 

 with an average breadth of more than 2 miles, and a depth at base 

 of 60 feet above the original level of the stream. This large 

 safety-valve exhausted much of the destructive effects which would 

 otherwise have been felt below ; though the country was probably a 

 loser rather than a gainer by the exchange ; for the valley of the 

 Cabul river is low, well cultivated and thickly populated in compa- 

 rison to any tracts I know near the bed of the Indus." 



