Oe eee tes: 
1886.] Geography ana Travels. 149 
better, and had advanced to the Jumna and the Ganges, than that 
the river should have altered so greatly. Yet the disappearance 
of the forests marks some diminution in the water-supply. Later 
writings, about the sixth century B. C., state that the Saraswati 
sinks into the earth, and gives the Ganges and Jumna at their 
confluence. This is probably a fable to save the credit of a sacred 
river. The Sutlej and the Indus rise on opposite sides of Mount 
Kailas, at elevations of about 15,200 and 18,000 feet respectively, 
and both flow north-west for a considerable distance, and then 
turn to the south-west, the Indus taking the wider sweep, and 
enclosing, between itself and the Sutlej, a broad tract containing 
the other four rivers and their drainage basins. Much of the 
upper courses of all these rivers is torrential, but the Indus runs 
with a gentle and winding current through Ladak at a height of 
11,000 feet, and the lovely valley of Kashmir is situated near the 
sources of the Jhelum, which is even there a large river, since 
several tributaries join at Islamabad, forty miles above Srinagar. 
At Baramula, the Jhelum leaves Kashmir, and falls thirty-five feet 
per mile for seventy-five miles, and then twenty-one feet per mile 
to the Punjab plains. The earliest of the metrical histories of 
Kashmir state that the valley was once a lake, and that a powerful 
sage cut the gap at Baramula. It is not impossible that it was 
e work of man. Seventy-five miles of the upper course of the 
Beas have a fall! of 125 feet per mile. The courses of all these 
rivers after reaching the plains of the Punjab are, like those of the 
Mississippi and other rivers which have flood plains, subject to 
much disastrous change. The rainfall of the higher portions of 
the Punjab, where the rivers leave the hills, varies from thirty-four 
to forty-eight inches. At fifty miles from the hills only sixteen 
to twenty-four inches of rain falls, and at 100 miles, but ten to 
twelve inches. Where the rivers unite, no more than six inches 
of rain falls annually, and still less than this visits the desert 
plain of Sind, through which the mighty Indus, after receiving 
the five rivers, flows to the ocean. The five rivers unite 
before reaching the Indus, and the united stream, called the 
Panj-nad, or five streams, is at the junction more than twice 
the width of the Indus, but much shallower. The discharge 
of the Panj-nad at the low season, is estimated at 69,000 cubic 
eet per second, that of the Indus at 92,000. The flood discharge 
below the junction is about 380,000 cubic feet. A very large 
amount of water borne down by these rivers sinks into the 
ground, and forms an underground reserve of water, which even 
in the rainless region round near the meeting of the five rivers is 
not more than twenty-four feet below the surface. a 
Himalayan Peaks——According to notes communicated by 
Some 
. Lieut. Col. H. C. B. Tanner to the British Association, there 
are 
no large glaciers on the north-east or shady side of Kinchinjinga, 
nor does Mt. Everest seem to have noteworthy glaciers. 1s 
VOL. XX,—no. 1r 
