CHAP. XI.
THE CHENAB OR ACESINES JOINED BY THE
SUTLEGE OR HESUDRUS.
The Acesines of the Greeks, or the modern Chenab, is lost in the Indus at Mittun, having previously gathered the waters of the Punjab rivers. The junction is formed without noise or violence, for the banks are depressed on both sides, and the river is expanded: an eddy is cast to the eastern side, which sinks the water below the usual level, but it does not occasion danger. The Euphrates and Tigris, when joined, pass to the ocean under the name of the “river of the Arabs,” and the appellation of Punjnud, or “the five rivers,” has been bestowed on this portion of the Chenab; but it is a designation unknown to the people living on its banks, and adopted, I conclude, for geographical convenience.
Under the parallel of 29° 20´ north latitude, and five miles above Ooch, the Chenab receives the Garra, or joint stream of the Beas and Sutlege (Hyphasis and Hesudrus of antiquity). This junction is also formed without violence, and the low banks of both rivers lead to constant alteration in the point of the union, which, but a year ago, was two miles higher up. This circumstance renders it difficult to decide on the relative size of these rivers at their junction; both are about 500 yards wide, but the Chenab is more rapid. Immediately below the confluence, the united stream exceeds 800 yards; but in its course to the Indus, though it expands sometimes to a greater size, the Chenab rarely widens to 600 yards. In this part of its course it is likewise subject to change. The depth is greatest near its confluence with the Indus, exceeding twenty feet, but it decreases in ascending the river to about fifteen. The current is swifter than the Indus, running at the rate of three and a half miles an hour. The Chenab has some sand banks, but they do not interrupt its navigation by the “zohruks,” or flat-bottomed boats, forty of which will be found between Ooch and Mittun, a distance of forty miles, and a five days’ voyage.
The banks of the Chenab seldom rise three feet above the water’s edge, and they are more open and free from thick tamarisk than the Indus. Near the river there are green reeds, not unlike sugar-cane, and a shrub called “wahun,” with leaves like the beech-tree, but the country is highly cultivated, and intersected by various canals. The soil is slimy, and most productive: the crops are rich, and the cattle large and abundant; the villages are exceedingly numerous, and shaded by lofty trees. Some of these are the temporary habitations of pastoral tribes, who remove from one place to another, but there are many of a permanent description on both banks. Their safety is nowise affected by the inundations of the river or those of the Indus, for the expansion of these has been exaggerated, and it rarely extends two miles from the banks of either river.
The only place of note on the Chenab, below its junction by the Garra, is Ooch. It stands four miles westward of the river, and no doubt owes its site to the junction of two navigable streams in the vicinity. The country around it is highly cultivated: the tobacco plant in particular grows most luxuriantly; and after the season of inundation, the tract is one sheet of green fields and verdure. The productions of the gardens are various; the fig, vine, apple, and mulberry, with the “falsa,” which produces an acid berry, may be seen, also the “bedee mishk” (odoriferous willow). Roses, balsams, and the lily of the valley, excite a pleasing remembrance, and there are many plants foreign to India. A sensitive shrub, called “shurmoo,” or “the modest,” particularly struck me: its leaves, when touched, close and fall down upon the stalk, as if broken. The mango does not attain perfection in this soil or climate, and seems to deteriorate as we advance north. Indigo is reared successfully. Wheat and other grains are cultivated in preference to rice, which does not form here, as in Sinde and the lower provinces of the Indus, the food of the people, though it may be had in great quantities.