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



Below this, the chief damage done was the eating into the laud on 

 the right bank, an action which appears to go on, though in a very 

 minor degree, almost year by year. For some little time as the wa- 

 ter was falling the process was rapidly carried on, so much so that 

 I saw the people busy cutting down fine large trees in order to 

 anticipate the otherwise certain loss of the wood by the agency of 

 the water. 



All common mud and stone buildings on which the water rose 

 to any extent were of course destroyed, no buildings of substan- 

 tial masonry were, as far as I know, subjected in sufficient mea- 

 sure to the test. The Nowshera Barracks were not seriously in- 

 jured, but they were not exposed to the violence of the stream, and 

 the lowest of them had not more than 5 feet of water in it. A 

 good many trees were certaiuly uprooted, because we found several 

 cast up on the subsidence of the waters ; but trees were not promi- 

 nently observed floating down, and except in circumstances like 

 those noted near Kallabagh trees were rather destroyed where they 

 stood than carried away. 



The upper waters of the Indus, where I conjecture the stoppage 

 to have occurred, run through a country almost destitute of vegeta- 

 tion and it does not appear that along the course of the main river 

 there are forests so situated as to have been affected by this flood. 

 A good deal of drift wood was floated out of the creeks into which 

 Nullahs coming down from the more wooded country empty them- 

 selves, but this occurs always on the river being greatly flooded by 

 the summer rains, and on this occasion was not a feature of unusual 

 prominence. 



Dead animals too were rare. The higher Indus valley is very des- 

 titute of cattle, and part of what did exist there probably owed 

 their safety to the warning communicated to their owners. 



The banks, where not rocky, suffered according to the set of 

 the stream, but not at any place that I know of to any very remark- 

 able extent except below Kallabagh, to which allusion has already 

 been made. This extended from a short distance below that town 

 to near Esankheyl, varying of course at different points. The great- 

 est action appeared to be about 5 or G miles below Kallabagh, as 

 the river was falling. 



