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2 For the Punjab rivers it would be far more feasible to introduce steamers
3 of the description above specified than to materially improve the naviga-
4 bility of the rivers. It would be easier to adapt our steamers to the
5 rivers as they are than to deepen or alter the existing channel.
6 Any attempt at such alteration would be a work of great difficulty,
7 expeng and uncertainty. But if steamers of 2 feet or 24 feet draught,
8 and of great steam power, could only be constructed, there is good
9 reason to hope that they would successfully navigate the Punjab rivers
10 during all, or nearly all, the months of the year. The rivers are more or
11 less navigated all the year round by native country craft; then why
12 should they be closed to steamers of British build ? From local énquiry,
13 it is believed, that in the winter or low-water months, the average depth.
14 of the river channels is 4 or 5 feet, and that in the shallowest places
15 the depth is not Jess than 23 feet; and this belief is borne out by the
16 observation taken on the Upper Indus and Jhelum in former years by -
17 the Officers of the Indian Navy, In the spring, summer and autumn
18 months, the depth is of course much greater.
19 126. But whether one or both of the great locomotives, namely,
20 Probable result of im: Steam or Rail, be introduced, the utmost economy
21 proved navigation, and cheapness should be aimed’ at, and even
22 speed, if necessary, might be partially sacrificed to this object; so that
23 these mighty means may be available, not only to superior and high-
24 priced products, but also to the humbler agricultural produce with
25 which the Punjab is at present so surfeited. These ends attained,
26 there will come a time, though this generation may not see it, when the
27 valley of the Indus, as the highway of wealth and civilization, shall
28 rival the valley of the Ganges; when the means of cultivation in the
29 Plains of the Punjab shall have been greatly extended ; when half the
30 waters of the rivers shall have been diverted to irrigation in all direc-
31 tions ; when existing products scantily grown shall have been converted
32 to real staples; when new European products shall have become fami-
33 liar ; and when not only all these products shall be exported by the Indus,
34 but also manufactures yet to be developed, and articles from the regions
35 beyond the Himalayas and from the Central Asian countries.