Jhelum River

“ The highest part of this eastern boundary is 14,700 ft. There no are glaciers. The highest point on the Panjal range, which forms the south and south-west boundary, is 15,523 ft. above the sea.
The river Jhelum (q.v.) or Behat (Sanskrit (Vitasta) —the Hydaspes of Greek historians and geographers—flows north-westward through the middle of the valley. After a slow and winding course it expands about 25 m. below Srinagar, over a slight depression in the plain, and forms the Wular lake and marsh, which is about 121⁄2 m. ”

“ Jhang [Pg 265] now consists of a wedge of country lying between Lyallpur on the east and Sháhpur, Mianwálí, and Muzaffargarh on the west. It contains the valleys of the Chenáb and Jhelam rivers, which unite to the south-west of the district headquarters and flow as a single stream to the southern boundary. The valley of the Jhelam is pretty and fertile, that of the Chenáb exactly the reverse. In the west of the district part of the Thal is included in the boundary. The high land between the river valleys is much of it poor. Irrigation from the Lower Jhelam Canal is now available. ”

“ North of the Salt Range, the country extends upwards in an elevated plateau, diversified by countless ravines and fissures, until it loses itself in tangled masses of Rawalpindi mountains. In this rugged tract cultivation is rare and difficult, the soil being choked with saline matter. At the foot of the Salt Range, however, a small strip of level soil lies along the banks of the Jhelum, and is thickly dotted with prosperous villages. The drainage of the district is determined by a low central watershed running north and south at right angles to the Salt Range. ”

“ The Jhelam valley is much narrower. Above the present Chenáb alluvial tract there is in Phália a well tract known as the Hithár whose soil consists of older river deposits, and at a higher level a Bár, which will now receive irrigation from the Upper Jhelam Canal and become a rich agricultural tract. 26 p.c. of the cultivated area is irrigated from wells. Játs and Gújars are the great agricultural tribes, the former predominating. The climate is mild and the rainfall sufficient. The chief crops are wheat and bájra. ”

“ Next day we rise 2000 feet higher, and redescend 6500 feet to the banks of the Kischanganga, the chief affluent of the Jhelam, running mostly parallel to the course of the latter stream. Then we undulate—if so soft a term be applicable to a route so sharply, abruptly and irregularly serrate—along the spurs which border the river, now in the forest and now on a bleak plateau where careful irrigation avails to grow nothing less hardy than millet, peas and buckwheat. ”

“ In the cliffs of the river Jelam and its tributaries, which traverse this beautiful valley, strata consisting of fine clay, sand, soft sandstone, pebbles, and conglomerate are exposed to view. They contain freshwater shells, of the genera Lymneus, Paludina, and Cyrena, with land shells, all of recent species, and are precisely such deposits as would be formed if the whole valley were now converted into a great lake, and if the numerous rivers and torrents descending from the surrounding mountains were allowed sufficient time to fill up the lake-basin with fine sediment and gravel. ”

“ It is traversed in its whole length 279 by the river Jelam, which rises at the east end of the valley, and winds from one side of the plain to the other, at one time washing the base of the northern hills, at another receding to a considerable distance from them. The Jelam flows with a tranquil stream, and, being navigable throughout the whole of the level country as far up as Islamabad, for boats of considerable burden, is the great highway for the traffic of the country, in which, notwithstanding its being perfectly level, wheel-carriages are unknown. ”

“ As we were now deserted by the moon, our early start was made in comparative darkness. When the morning broke, we overlooked the valley of Jhellum. We descended for three miles, by a winding, rocky path, to the left bank of the river, and rode along its wooded bank till we arrived at Huttie. The wonderful river’s roaring voice drowns every other sound, and it insists on being listened to. On the opposite side of the Jhellum is seen the road from Abottabad. ”

“ Its descent is more rapid in the upper part of its course. A little below the Sea of Galilee it receives its largest confluent, the River Yarmuk, which breaks through the heights of the Hauran to the east. The volume of the water thus poured in nearly equals that of the Jordan itself at this point. Further south the Brook Jalûd comes down on the west from the Plain of Jezreel past Bethshean. ”

“ In ascending the western shore, the traveller at length reaches the point where the Jordan mixes its muddy waters with those of the lake. Hasselquist, the only modern author who describes the mouth of that celebrated river, tells us that the plain which extends from thence to Jericho, a distance of more than three leagues, is, generally speaking, level, but uncultivated and barren. The soil is a grayish sandy clay, so loose that the horses often sank up to the knees in it. ”

“ The dam on the Euphrates which regulated the flowing of its waters into the Hindîyeh canal has been allowed to fall into disrepair; every year a deeper and a stronger stream flows down the Hindîyeh, and matters have reached such a pass that during the season of low water the eastern bed is dry, the palm gardens of Ḥilleh are dying for lack of irrigation, and all the country along the river-bank below Ḥilleh has gone out of cultivation. ”

“ The stream is not a very large one, but clear, fresh, cold water flows from the snows of the western slopes of Jibel Unila throughout the entire year. Although slightly brackish the water is drinkable to cattle, but the inhabitants rely for their supply upon the many streams and springs that form its tributaries. The river flows along the Teluet valley from east to west, and at the south-west corner of the plain passes out through a gorge to flow into the Idermi, which, eventually joining the Wad Dads, forms the Wad Draa, the largest and most important [112] river of trans-Atlas Morocco. ”

“ Through the middle of this valley runs the Jemma, a river equal to the Nile, if not larger, but infinitely more rapid: after leaving the valley, it crosses that part of Maitsha on 583 the east of the Nile, and loses itself in that river below Samseen, near the ford where our army passed in the unfortunate retreat of the month of May: its sources or fountains are three; they rise in the mountains of Amid Amid, and keep on close to the east side of them, till the river issues out of the valley into Maitsha. ”

“ Each of these propositions, which threatened to modify the natural character and unity of the reservation, was strenuously resisted by Park administrations and the public generally.
In 1919 an irrigation project was sponsored by Idaho interests. It was a comprehensive plan that contemplated a dam on Yellowstone River, thereby raising the level of Yellowstone Lake. The water from this mighty reservoir would then be tapped by a tunnel through the Continental Divide, which would deliver the water into the Snake River. Other dams were designed to impound water along Fall and Bechler rivers. ”

“ I do not mean to say, that after all one has heard of it, there is not a shade of disappointment as one enters the valley by the Murree route; for it is not until you are fairly in the midst of the valley that you appreciate its beauty. To say that it is like an emerald set in silver, is to give but the faintest idea of the exquisite beauty of that bright green plain, with its broad stream, the Jhelum, running through it, and encircled on every side by snow-capped hills. Beautiful as a whole, it is far more so in its details. ”

“ It is so called from the yellowness of its water, caused by the vast quantity of mud which is swept down by its rapid current to the sea; hence, the common saying, "When the Yellow River runs clear," as an equivalent of the Greek Kalends. The huge embankments, built to confine it to a given course, are continually being forced by any unusual press of extra water, with enormous damage to property and great loss of life, and from time to time this river has been known to change its route altogether, suddenly diverging, almost at a right angle. ”

“ Small dug-out canoes are also used by the natives for travelling along the river. Navigation in a small launch would probably be quite possible as far as Neum for several months in the year. The larger Nile steamers would most likely be unable to navigate this stream owing to the extraordinary sharp curves and bends of the river, the stream when in flood being very swift. ”

“ Had the dam been built much lower down the stream the troughs would have been near the surface of the river and been torn away annually by the freshets, or the people would be obliged each year to tear down and reconstruct that part of the canal. As it now is it is probable that only the short dam will need to be rebuilt each year.
All dams and irrigating canals are built directly by or at the expense of the persons benefited by the water. Water is never rented to persons with sementeras along an artificial waterway. ”

“ The country was simply a vast lake, the main road merely marked by a dense row of poplars. Trees rose promiscuously out of the calm and sunlit water, wisps of maize and wreckage clinging to their lower boughs. Presently the road showed in patches, a broad waterfall breaking it every here and there as the imprisoned waters from above sought the slightly lower channel of the Jhelum.
We passed a party of natives bivouacking near the roof and upper storey of their wooden hut, which, floating from above, was held up by the Baramula road. ”

“ In Pleistocene times drainage down the Nile Valley appears to have become definitely established and probably the river in the lower part of its course eventually washed up against and broke down the separating barrier of gravel between the Fayûm and the Nile Valley, so that part of its waters obtained access to the depression, formed a lake on the lowest part, and gradually rose until the whole basin, up to the level of the channel connecting it with the Nile Valley, became filled. ”

“ The range rises in bold precipices, broken by gorges, clothed with brushwood and traversed by streams which are at first pure, but soon become impregnated with the saline matter over which they pass. Between the line of hills lies a picturesque table-land, in which the beautiful little lake of Kallar Kahar nestles amongst the minor ridges. ”

“ Gradually this lake became silted up with peaty deposits, and formed a series of swamps and lagoons through which the Bahr el Gebel from the south and the Bahr el Ghazal from the west wander in a series of loops and curves without any certain banks. The smallest rise in the level of the river floods an immense tract of country, and at all times of the year the sudd region is one gigantic evaporating pan. ”

“ In mountainous districts landslips sometimes occur and block the valley of a stream which then forms a lake. The water gradually rises and eventually flows over the dam and sweeps it away causing a flood, which is of great suddenness and height but decreases very quickly in height as it travels down the valley. In a case which occurred in the Himalayas in 1888 the inhabitants of the valleys, from the dam to the point where the river debouches from the hills, were compelled by Government to vacate all habitations below the probable level of the flood, and no loss of life occurred. ”

“ The hill tracks, which form the main lines of communication, are seldom easy; they are often difficult, sometimes dangerous.”
The country is watered by the river which goes in its northern course indifferently by the names of the Yarkhun, the Mastuj or the Chitral River, and which, flowing from a glacier of the Hindu Kush, runs south-westerly to Asmar, where it becomes known as the Kunar River, and falls into the Kabul River near Jalalabad. ”

“ Davis suggests that a great derangement of waters of the Yellow River, one of the largest in the world, might even now cause the flood of Yaou to be repeated, and lay the most fertile and populous plains of China under water. In modern times the bursting of the banks of an artificial canal, into which a portion of the Yellow River has been turned, has repeatedly given rise to the most dreadful accidents, and is a source of perpetual anxiety to the government. ”

“ The current in flood is not more than 2 knots per hour. The Jur River is navigable for steamers from its mouth as far as the “Poste des Rapides” at Rafili, and probably above this point by light draught steamers to Khojali, from August till November. In the tableland and higher plateaux of the watershed, these rivers are fed by many streams running down from the slopes and hills. On the other hand, in the lower steppes to the north, the water runs up into many khors and swamps, which break away from the banks. ”

“ Although the great majority of the inhabitants avow themselves immune from the disease, they are averse to settling in the valleys. A feature of the river is the abruptness with which the broad open spaces are changed to narrow gorges of no remarkable height. This trait in the character of an otherwise respectable inland river compresses so great a volume of water into so small a channel that its passage is attended with risk. It is not until the spreading expanses of the Pendjeh, Yulatan and Merv oases have exhausted it that the stream is crossed with convenience. ”