1 178 RISE OF THE RIVER.
2 a tough smooth bark like that of the palm
3 in texture, procured from a tree which grows
4 wild about the neighbouring hills. They wear
5 away, however, on the rocky bottom in twenty-
6 five or thirty days, and fresh anchors are then
7 dropped. —
8 The river generally rises forty cubits; the
9 extraordinary rise talked of as having happened
10 about the year 1800, was forty-six cubits.* A
11 boat, during thecold weather, will reach Kala-
12 bagh (seventy-two kos) in three days, and in
13 the rains in six hours! The boatmen are re-
14 quired to be very expert, and are better skilled
15 in their profession than those of any other river
16 * Another great rise took place, 1840, which over-
17 flowed the eountry to a considerable extent. These inun-
18 dations are common to the rivers of the Panjab from their
19 beds within the mountains being frequently closed by a
20 sudden avalanche of the precipice adjacent to.them, which
21 chokes the channel for many days; and when the water has
22 formed a passage for itself it rushes into the plains with
23 awful force, and, sweeping everything before it, spreads to
24 a great distance over the country. Dr. Jameson, who visited
25 the Attok a short time after the last great rise, has pub-
26 lished the result'of his observations in an interesting paper
27 in the ‘ Journal of the Asiatic Society ’ in Calcutta.