DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15172#0311
276
MEMOIR OF THE INDUS.
CHAP. XII.
it difficult to decide on the relative size of these
rivers at their junction; both are about 500 yards
wide, but the Chenab is more rapid. Immediately
below the confluence, the united stream exceeds
800 yards ; but in its course to the Indus, though
it expands sometimes to a greater size, the Chenab
rarely widens to 600 yards. In this part of its
course it is likewise subject to change. The depth
is greatest near its confluence with the Indus, ex-
ceeding twenty feet, but it decreases in ascending
the river to about fifteen. The current is swifter
than the Indus, running at the rate of three miles
and a half an hour. The Chenab has some sand-
banks, but they do not interrupt its navigation by
the " zohruks," or flat-bottomed boats, forty of
which will be found between Ooch and Mittun, a
distance of forty miles, and a five days' voyage.
The banks of the Chenab seldom rise three feet
above the water's edge, and they are more open
and free from thick tamarisk than the Indus. Near
the river there are green reeds, not unlike sugar-
cane, and a shrub called " wahun," with leaves like
the beech-tree ; but the country is highly cultivated,
and intersected by various canals. The soil is slimy,
and most productive; the crops are rich, and the
cattle are large and abundant; the villages are ex-
ceedingly numerous, and shaded by lofty trees.
Some of these are the temporary habitations of pas-
toral tribes, who remove from one place to another,
but there are many of a permanent description on
both banks. Their safety is nowise affected by the in-
undations of the river or those of the Indus ; for the
MEMOIR OF THE INDUS.
CHAP. XII.
it difficult to decide on the relative size of these
rivers at their junction; both are about 500 yards
wide, but the Chenab is more rapid. Immediately
below the confluence, the united stream exceeds
800 yards ; but in its course to the Indus, though
it expands sometimes to a greater size, the Chenab
rarely widens to 600 yards. In this part of its
course it is likewise subject to change. The depth
is greatest near its confluence with the Indus, ex-
ceeding twenty feet, but it decreases in ascending
the river to about fifteen. The current is swifter
than the Indus, running at the rate of three miles
and a half an hour. The Chenab has some sand-
banks, but they do not interrupt its navigation by
the " zohruks," or flat-bottomed boats, forty of
which will be found between Ooch and Mittun, a
distance of forty miles, and a five days' voyage.
The banks of the Chenab seldom rise three feet
above the water's edge, and they are more open
and free from thick tamarisk than the Indus. Near
the river there are green reeds, not unlike sugar-
cane, and a shrub called " wahun," with leaves like
the beech-tree ; but the country is highly cultivated,
and intersected by various canals. The soil is slimy,
and most productive; the crops are rich, and the
cattle are large and abundant; the villages are ex-
ceedingly numerous, and shaded by lofty trees.
Some of these are the temporary habitations of pas-
toral tribes, who remove from one place to another,
but there are many of a permanent description on
both banks. Their safety is nowise affected by the in-
undations of the river or those of the Indus ; for the