1 C8)
2 by difficult and laborious land routes through Central India and the
3 desert routes of Rajpootana; and a third portion (and at present the
4 least portion) to Kurrachee by water carriage on the Indus and its tribu-
5 taries, Of this traffic, then, nearly all would be diverted to the proposed
6 Railroad from Umritsur to Mooltan and thence to Kurrachee. From
7 these parts most things intended for export would not go to Calcutta
8 if there were facilities for going to Kurrachee ; and of those things
9 destined for Bombay, all would go by the Rail to Kurrachee vid Mooltan,
10 instead of the arduous route through Central India. In the same manner
11 all the imports for Umritsur and other parts of the country between
12 Delhi.to the North-Western Provinces Frontier and the regions beyond
13 it, which now come from Calcutta or from Bombay by land, would proceed
14 to Kurrachee and thence upwards by Rail.
15 88. But besides the noble traffic above indicated, which is of general
16 as well as local interest, there is already a traffic
17 of some magnitude between the Punjab and
18 Kurrachee. So strong is the tendency of trade towards the natural port
19 and outlet, that large quantities of indigenous produce creep and labor
20 in clumsy native crafty down the Five Rivers. In this manner hundreds
21 of tons of cereals, linseed, sugar, saltpetre, indigo, pursue a tedious way
22 over 400 miles of the five rivers to the seaboard. The water traffic is
23 greatest on the Sutlej, next on the Jhelum, then on the Indus, and
24 lastly on the Chenab and the Ravee. The united traffic of the rivers
25 up and down by (the greater part say four-fifths being down traffic), as
26 ascertained by registration of boats at the junction point, Mithun Kote
27 on the Indus, is not less than 700,000 maunds or 35,000 tons per
28 annum. Now if the rates of carriage by Rail should be kept low, so as to
29 attract commodities which can only afford to pay for cheap transit, then
30 it may be certainly presumed, that of the above quantity all that pertains
31 to the Sutlej, the Ravee, and: the Chenab, and a part of that belonging
32 to the Jhelum, will be diverted to the Umritsur and Mooltan Railway ;
33 and if the Railway up to Peshawur should have been established, then
34 almost all the traffic of the Jhelum, and much of the Indus traffic, would
35 proceed to Lahore, and thence down the Rail to Mooltan. The present
36 means of navigation being wretched, and the rivers being difficult, the
37 existing water traffic would: preferentially take the Railway, provided
38 always that the cost of transit be cheap. It is indeed for the sake of
39 Water traffic.