1 ( 108 )
2 CHAP. IIL
3 UVnS OF AroHAOKISTAUll.
4 \ FGHAIJNISTAlJNhaBfeiirlargerivefsfbraGotmtryofsuchei;-
5 '^^.teht. Ezoqpt the Indm, there is no river in all theooimtiy which
6 is not fbidable throu^ioat its course for the greater part of the jear.
7 The hngeit partake of die character of tOTToits, and though diey often
8 oovne down with great Ibrce^ they soon run off Their importance is
9 diminished by the drains which' are madefiom them for the purpose
10 of irrigating the fiddss by which a laige stream b sometimes entirely
11 consumed, before it reaches any other river. It may be observed of
12 all the rivers in Aighaunistami, that their size at their mouths is never
13 equal to the ezpectatioas they raise when they first issue from the
14 mountains.
15 The supplies which they yield to the cultivation, and the interrup-
16 tion they occasion to travellers, are the only considerations whicli
17 make thcni of importance. The Indus alone is always navigable^ and
18 httle use is made even of its navigation.
19 The Indus, from the lenfrth of its course, and the volume of water
20 which it carries to tlie ocean, must be reckoned among the first n\ ers
21 in tlie world. Tlie distance from its head to the sea, cannot
22 be exactly aHcertained. but it has been traced for 1.3.50 miles, and
23 there is reason to suppose that its whole leni^th is much greater j many
24 of its tributary streams are themselves littlt interior in extent to some
25 of the most considerable rivers of Europe *. The source of this noble
26 * In length oF course, tlioiigh not in deptli or pcrmnnmrc, the I lydnspcs, the Hy-
27 draotes, and the Uytudrus, arc sttperior to the Khoae; the course of the Hyphatw w
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