1 BRIDGE OF BOATS. 177
2 and every year has a bridge formed of them to
3 keep. open his communication with Péshawr.
4 The bridge lasts from seven.to eight months in
5 twelve ; but from the violence of the torrent in
6 the rainy months it is frequently broken and
7 again put together. During the cold weather
8 it is constructed just above the fort; but in the
9 spring and summef it is removed to a spot
10 rather lower down, where it lasts till the stream
11 becomes too strong for it. The banks of the
12 river are inconvenient of ascent and descent;
13 the boats are small; the anchors are dropped
14 at a great distance—perhaps four hundred or
15 five hundred feet above where the bridge is to
16 be formed—on account of the depth and ra-
17 pidity of the current, to allow them to settle at
18 a considerable angle. A boat will cost 300
19 rupees, viz. wood 150, iron 60, labour 90. It
20 ig built in one and a half or two months,
21 and will last seven or eight years, and then
22 with repair four or five longer. The anchors
23 are six cubits long, five broad, with eighty
24 or one hundred mands’ weight of stone en-
25 closed in a, basket. The cables are made of
26 13