1859.] The Flooding of tie Indus. 223 



jee in Hussoora district is situated on the left bank of the Indus, 

 between the confluence of the rivers of Gilgit and "Astor" or Hus- 

 soora, and watches the road to Gilgit. 



Since I have been in Cashmere, I have carefully questioned men 

 from Gilgit, Hoonza, Nuggur, and Ghor, and particularly two 

 (Mahomed Khan and Hunneefa) who had left Nuggur only 24 days 

 deputed by the Raja Zaffir Zaid Khan to ask the aid of the Maha 

 Raja against Raja " Gohraman" in Gilgit. All accounts agree 

 that the late stoppage* was of the river of Hoonza, about a day's 

 journey above the fort and town of that name, and 4 or 5 days 

 journey Northward of Gilgit. It was caused by the subsidence of a 

 mountain side called " Phungurh" on the left or Nuggur bank, from 

 the action of rain and snow above, and of the stream below, in the 

 winter of 1858. The vast fragments of rock, and earth, and trees 

 and drift wood, dammed up the narrow bed of the river for 6 months ; 

 when the waters swollen from the melting of the snow in the moun- 

 tains, burst a sudden passage in August, and destroyed many forts 

 and villages and lands of the Hoonza and Gilgit districts, The 

 lake mentioned by Wuzeer Poonoo was probably the back water of 

 this huge dam. 



Captain Montgomerie of the Engineers, who has charge of the 

 Grand Trigonometrical Survey in Cashmere has arrived at the same 

 conclusion regarding the site of this barrier of 1858, by an enquiry 

 altogether independent of mine. 



I have already reported that menf were deputed by me from 

 Huzara in the direction of Gilgit to make personal enquiry and 

 if possible see the very spot ; but letters from the border of the 

 Kohistan country with Gilgit, received on 26th May, declare their 

 inability to proceed further, because of hostilities between the Chief 

 of Nuggur and those of Hoonza and Gilgit ; " the road is closed 

 to all travellers, and four men, who lately went from Chilass, were 

 robbed and put to death." — I had hoped to have been able from their 

 enquiries to confirm or dispel a present disquieting rumour that one 

 of the five tributary rivers near Gilgit is still obstructed.! 



* Of 1858, A. D. 



f Izzuttoolla Khan, Syud Sufdur Ali. 



tit was reported originally that two tributary rivers had been stopped, of 

 which one has set itself free and the other remains closed. 



