Asiatic Rivers—Euphrates and Tigris—River Systems South of the Himalaya—
Chinese Rivers—Siberian Rivers.
THE only river system of importance in Western Asia is that of the
Euphrates and Tigris. In the basin of these celebrated streams,
containing an area of 230,000 square miles, immense mounds of earth, in
a desolate plain, point out the sites of some of the most celebrated
cities of antiquity—of Nineveh and Babylon. Innumerable remains and
inscriptions, the records of times very remote, have been discovered by
adventurous travellers, and bear testimony to the truth of some of the
most interesting pages of history. The Euphrates, and its affluent the
Merad-Chaï (supposed to be the stream forded, as the Euphrates, by the
Ten Thousand in their retreat), rise in the heart of Armenia, and, after
running 1800 miles on the table-land to 38° 41ʹ of north latitude, they
join the northern branch of the Euphrates, which rises in the Gheul
Mountains, near Erzeroum. The whole river then descends in rapids
through the Taurus chain, north of Romkala, to the plains of
Mesopotamia.
The Tigris rises in the mountains to the N. and W. of Dyarbekir, and
after receiving several tributaries from the high lands of Kurdistan, it
pierces the Taurus range about 100 miles above Mosul, from whence it
descends in a tortuous course through the plain of ancient Assyria,
receiving many streams from the Tyari mountains, inhabited by the
Nestorian Christians, and, farther south, from those of Luristan. The
country through which it flows is rich in cornfields, date-groves, and
forest-trees.[121] Near to the city of Bagdad the Tigris and Euphrates
approach to within 12 miles, where they were once connected by two great
canals. From this point they run nearly parallel for more than 100
miles, encircling the plain of Babylon or Southern Mesopotamia—the
modern Irak-Arabi. The two rivers unite at Korna, and form one stream,
which, under the name of Shat-el-Arab, runs for 150 miles before it
falls into the Persian Gulf. The banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, once
the seat of an extensive population, and of art, civilization, and
industry, are now nearly deserted, covered with brushwood and grass,
dependent on the rains alone for that luxuriant vegetation which, under
an admirable system of irrigation, formerly covered them. Excepting the
large centres of population, Bagdad and Mosul, the inhabitants consist
of nomade Kurdish tribes. What remains of civilization has taken refuge
in the mountains, where the few traces of primitive and most ancient
Christianity, under the misapplied denomination of Nestorian Christians,
are to be found in the Tyari range. The floods of the rivers are very
regular in their period; beginning in March, they attain their greatest
height in June.
The Persian Gulf may be navigated by steam all the year, the Euphrates
only eight months; it might, however, afford easy intercourse with
eastern Asia, as it did in former times. The distance from Aleppo to
Bombay by the Euphrates is 2870 miles, of which 2700, from Bir to
Bombay, are by water; in the time of Queen Elizabeth this was the common
route to India, and a fleet was then kept at Bir, expressly for that
navigation.
Six rivers of the first magnitude descend from the southern side of the
table-land of eastern Asia and its mountain barriers, all different in
origin, direction, and character, while they convey to the ocean a
greater volume of water than all the rivers of the rest of the continent
conjointly. Of these, the Indus, the double system of the Ganges, and
Brahmapootra, and the three parallel rivers in the Indo-Chinese
peninsula, water the plains of southern Asia; the great system of rivers
that descend from the eastern terraces of the table-land irrigates the
fertile lands of China; and lastly, the Siberian rivers, not inferior to
any in magnitude, carry the waters of the Altaï and northern slope of
the table-land to the Arctic Ocean.
The hard-fought battles and splendid victories recently achieved by
British valour over a bold and well-disciplined foe have added to the
historical interest of the Indus and its tributary streams, now the
boundaries of our Asiatic territories.
The sources of the Indus were only ascertained in 1812; the Ladak, the
largest branch of the Indus, has its origin in the snowy mountains of
Karakorum; and the Shyook, which is the smaller stream, rises in the
Kentese or Gangri range, a ridge parallel to the Himalaya, which extends
along the table-land of Tibet, north and west of the sacred lake of
Mánasarowar. These two streams join north-west of Ladak and form the
Indus; the Sutlej, its principal tributary, springs from the lake of
Rakas Tal, which communicates with that of Mánasarowar, both situated in
a valley between the Himalaya and Gangri chain at the great elevation of
15,200 feet. These rivers, fed by streams of melted snow from the
northern side of the Himalaya, both flow westward along the extensive
longitudinal valley of western Tibet. The Sutlej breaks through the
Himalaya about the 75th meridian, and traverses the whole breadth of the
chain, in frightful chasms and clefts in the rocks, to the plains of the
Punjab; the Indus, after continuing its course on the table-land through
several degrees of longitude farther, descends near the junction of the
Himalaya and the Hindoo Coosh, west of the valley of Cashmere, to the
same plain. Three tributaries—the Jelum or Hydaspes, the Chenab or
Acescines, and the Ravee or Hydraötes, all superior to the Rhone in
size—flow from the southern face of the Himalaya, and with the Sutlej
(the ancient Hyphasis) join the Indus before it reaches Mittun; hence
the name Punjab, “the plain of the five rivers,” now one of the most
valuable countries in the East. From Mittun to the ocean, the Indus,
like the Nile, does not receive a single accessary, from the same cause—
the sterility of the country through which it passes. The Cabul river,
which rises near Guzni, and is joined by a larger affluent from the
southern declivities of the Hindoo Coosh, flows through picturesque and
dangerous defiles, and joins the Indus at the town of Attock, and is the
only tributary of any magnitude that comes from the west.
The Indus is not favourable to navigation: for 70 miles after it leaves
the mountains the descent in a boat is dangerous, and it is only
navigable for steam-vessels of small draught of water; yet, from the
fertility of the Punjab, and the near approach of its basin to that of
the Ganges at the foot of the mountains, it must ultimately be a
valuable acquisition, and the more especially because it commands the
principal roads between Persia and India, one through Cabul and
Peshawer, and the other from Herat through Candahar. The delta of the
Indus, formerly celebrated for its civilization, has long been a desert;
but from the luxuriance of the soil, and the change of political
circumstances, it may again resume its pristine aspect. It is 60 miles
long, and presents a face of 120 miles to the sea at the Gulf of Oman,
where the river empties itself by many mouths, of which only three or
four are navigable: one only can be entered by vessels of 50 tons, and
all are liable to change. The tide ascends them with extraordinary
rapidity for 75 miles, and so great is the quantity of mud carried by
it, and the absorbing violence of the eddies, that a vessel wrecked on
the coast was buried in sand and mud in two tides. The annual floods
begin with the melting of the snow in the Himalaya in the end of April,
come to their height in July, and end in September. The length of this
river is 1500 miles, and it drains an area of 400,000 square miles.
The second group of South Indian rivers, and one of the greatest, is the
double system of the Ganges and Brahmapootra. These two rivers, though
wide apart at their courses, have their sources little removed from each
other, on opposite sides of the central ridge of the Himalaya, and
which, converging to a common delta, constitute one of the most
important groups on the globe.
Mr. Alexander Elliot, of the Body Guard in Bengal, son of Admiral
Elliot, with his friends, are the first who have accomplished the
arduous expedition to the sources of the Ganges. The river flows at once
in a very rapid stream not less than 40 yards across, from a huge cave
in a perpendicular wall of ice at the distance of about three marches
from the Temple of Gungoo-tree, to which the pilgrims resort. Mr. Elliot
says, “The view from the glacier was perfectly amazing; beautiful or
magnificent is no word for it,—it was really quite astonishing. If you
could fancy a bird’s-eye of all the mountains in the world in one
cluster, and every one of them covered with snow, it would hardly give
you an idea of the sight which presented itself.”
Many streams from the southern face of the Himalaya unite at Hurdwar to
form the great body of the river. It flows from thence in a
south-easterly direction through the plains of Bengal, receiving in its
course the tribute of 19 or 20 rivers, of which 12 are larger than the
Rhine. About 220 miles in a direct line from the Bay of Bengal, into
which the Ganges flows, the innumerable channels and branches into which
it splits form an intricate maze over a delta twice as large as that of
the Nile.
The Brahmapootra, a river equal in the volume of its waters to the
Ganges, may be considered as the continuation of the Dzangho Tchou or
river of Lassa, which rises near the sources of the Sutlej and the
Indus, in long. 82° E. After watering the great longitudinal valley of
eastern Tibet, it makes a sudden bend to the south in long. 90° E.,
cutting through the Himalaya chain, as the Indus does at its opposite
extremity between Iskasdo and Attock; after which it receives several
tributaries from the northern mountains of the Birman empire; but very
little is known of this part of its basin. The upper part of the
Brahmapootra is parallel to the Himalaya chain, until it enters Upper
Assam, where, passing through the sacred pool of Brahma-Koond, it
receives the name which it bears in the lower part of its course—
Brahmapootra, the “off-spring of Brahma:” the natives call it the Lahit,
Sanscrit for the “Red River.” In Upper Assam, through which it winds 500
miles, and forms some extensive channel islands, it receives six very
considerable accessories, of which the origin is unknown, though some
are supposed to come from the table-land of Tibet. They are only
navigable in the plains, but vessels of considerable burthen ascend the
parent stream as far as Sundiva. Before it enters the plains of Bengal,
below Goyalpara, the Brahmapootra runs with rapidity and in great
volume, and, after receiving the rivers of Bhotan and other streams,
branches of it unite with those of the Ganges about 40 miles from the
coast, but the two rivers enter the sea by different mouths, though they
sometimes approach within two miles. The length of the Brahmapootra is
probably 860 miles, so that it is 500 miles shorter than the Ganges: the
volume of water discharged by it during the dry season is about 146,188
cubic feet in a second; the quantity discharged by the Ganges in the
same time, and under the same circumstances, is 80,000 cubic feet. In
the perennial floods the quantity of water poured through the
tributaries of the Brahmapootra from their snowy sources is incredible;
the plains of Upper Assam are an entire sheet of water from the 15th of
June to the 15th of September, and there is no communication but by
elevated causeways eight or ten feet high: the two rivers, with their
branches, lay the plain of Bengal under water for hundreds of miles
annually. They begin first to swell from the melting of the snow on the
mountains, but, before their inferior streams overflow from that cause,
all the lower parts of Bengal adjacent to the Ganges and Brahmapootra
are under water from the swelling of these rivers by the rains. The
increase is arrested before the middle of August, by the cessation of
the rains in the mountains, though they continue to fall longer on the
plains. The delta is traversed in every direction by arms of the rivers.
The Hoogly branch, at all times navigable, passes Calcutta and
Chandernagor; and the Hauringotta arm is also navigable, as well as the
Ganges, properly so called. The channels, however, are perpetually
changing, from the strength of the current, and the prodigious quantity
of matter washed from the high lands; the Ganges alone carries to the
sea 600,000 cubic feet of mud in a second, the effects of which are
perceptible 60 miles from the coast. The elevation of the mountains, and
indeed of the land generally, must have been enormous, since it remains
still so stupendous after ages of such degradation. The Sunderbunds, a
congeries of innumerable river islands formed by the endless streams and
narrow channels of the rivers, as well as by the indentations of arms of
the sea, line the coast of Bengal for 180 miles, a wilderness of jungle
and heavy timber. The united streams of the Ganges and Brahmapootra
drain an area of 650,000 square miles, and there is scarcely a spot in
Bengal more than 20 miles distant from a river navigable even in the dry
season.
These three great rivers of Southern India do not differ more widely in
their physical circumstances than in the races of men who inhabit their
banks, yet from their position they seem formed to unite nations the
most varied in their aspect and speech. The tributaries of the Ganges
and Indus come so near to each other at the foot of the mountains, that
a canal only two miles long would unite them, and thus an inland
navigation from the Bay of Bengal to the Gulf of Oman might be
established.
An immense volume of water is poured in a series of nearly parallel
rivers of great magnitude, and running in the direction of the meridian
through the Indo-Chinese peninsula, to empty themselves into the ocean
on either side of the peninsula of Malacca. They rise in those elevated
regions at the south-eastern angle of the table-land of Tibet, the lofty
but unknown provinces of the Chinese empire, and water the great valleys
that extend nearly from north to south with perfect uniformity, between
chains of mountains no less uniform, which spread out like a fan as they
approach the sea. Scarcely anything is known of the origin or upper
parts of these rivers, and, with a few exceptions, almost as little of
the lower.
Their number amounts to six or seven, all large, though three surpass
the rest—the Irawady, which waters the Birman empire, and falls into the
Bay of Bengal at the Gulf of Martaban; the Menam, or river of Siam; and
the river Cambodja, which flows through the empire of Annam: the last
two fall into the Gulf of Siam and the China Sea.
The sources of the Irawady are in the same chain of mountains with the
eastern affluents of the Brahmapootra more to the south. Its course is
through countries hardly known to Europeans, but it seems to be
navigable by boats before coming to the city of Amarapoora, south of
which it enters the finest and richest plain of the empire, containing
its four capital-cities. There it receives two large affluents, one from
the Chinese province of Yun-nan, which flows into the Irawady at the
city of Ava, 446 miles from the sea, the highest point attained by the
British forces during the Burmese war.
From Ava to its delta the Irawady is a magnificent river, more than four
miles broad in some places, but encumbered with channel islands. In this
part of its course it receives its largest tributary, and forms in its
delta one of the most extensive systems of internal navigation. The
Rangoon is the only one of its 14 mouths that is always navigable, and
in it the commerce of the empire is concentrated. The internal
communication is extended by the junction of the two most navigable
deltoid branches with the rivers Salüaen and Pegu by natural canals:
that joining the former is 200 miles long; the canal uniting the latter
is only navigable at high water.
The Menam, one of the largest Asiatic rivers, is less known than the
Irawady; it comes from the Chinese province of Yun-nan, and runs through
the kingdom of Siam, which it cuts into several islands by many
diverging branches, and enters the Gulf of Siam by three principal arms,
the most easterly of which forms the harbour of Bangkok. It is joined to
the Menam Kong, or Cambodja, by the small river Anan-Myit.
The river of Cambodja has the longest course of any in the peninsula: it
is supposed to be the Lantsan-Kiang, which rises in the high land of
K’ham, in eastern Asia, not far from the sources of the great Chinese
river, the Yang-tse-Kiang. After transversing the elevated plain of
Yun-nan, where it is navigable, it rushes through the mountain barriers,
and, on reaching a wider valley about 300 miles from its mouth, it is
joined to the Menam by the natural canal of the Anan-Myit. More to the
south it is said to split into branches which unite again.
The ancient capital of Annam is situate on the Cambodja, about 150 miles
from the sea; a little to the south its extensive delta begins, projects
far into the ocean, and is cut in all directions by arms of the river,
navigable during the floods; three of its mouths are permanently so for
large vessels up to the capital. The Saüng, more to the east, is much
shorter than the Cambodja, though said to be 1000 miles long, but
Europeans have not ascended higher than the town of Sai-gon. Near its
mouth it sends off several branches to the eastern arm of the Cambodja.
All rivers of this part of Asia are subject to periodical inundations,
which fertilize the plains at the expense of the mountains.
The parallelism of the mountain-chains constitutes formidable barriers
between the upper basins of the Indo-Chinese rivers, and decided lines
of separation between the inhabitants of the intervening valleys; but
this inconvenience is in some degree compensated by the natural canals
of junction and the extensive water communication towards the mouths of
the rivers.
Four great systems of rivers take their origin on the eastern declivity
of the great table-land of central Asia, and running from west to east,
traverse the Chinese empire:—the Hong-Kiang, which, rising in the
province of Yun-nan, empties itself into the bay of Canton; the
Yang-tse-Kiang, or Son of the Ocean; the Hoang-Ho; and the great river
of Amur.
The length of the Hoang-Ho is 2000 miles, that of the Yang-tse-Kiang
2900. Though near their sources they are widely separated by the
mountain-chains that border the table-land, they approach as they
proceed on their eastern course, and are not more than 100 miles apart
when they enter the Yellow Sea. From a map constructed by the Jesuit
missionaries in the 18th century, it appears that the mouth of the
Hoang-Ho or Yellow River has shifted to the enormous distance of 126
leagues from its former position. The Yang-tse-Kiang and the Yellow
River, in the lower part of their course, are united by innumerable
canals, forming the grandest system of irrigation and of internal
navigation in existence.
The Hoang-Ho brings down so large a quantity of earthy matter to the
sea, that, like the Tiber of old, it is called the “Yellow” River.
Strong tides ascend these rivers to the distance of 400 miles, and for
the time prevent the descent of the fresh water, which forms large
interior seas frequented by thousands of trading-vessels, and they
irrigate the productive lands of central China, from time immemorial the
most highly cultivated and the most densely-peopled region of the globe.
Almost all the Chinese rivers of less note—and they are numerous—feed
these giant streams, with the exception of the Ta-si or Hong-Kiang and
the Pee-ho or White River, which have their own basins. The former,
rising to the east of the town of Yun-nan, flows through the plains of
Canton eastward to the Gulf of Canton, into which it discharges itself,
increased in its course by the Sekiang.
The White River, rising in the mountains near the Great Wall, becomes
navigable a few miles east of Pekin, unites with the Eu-ho, joins the
Great Canal, and, as the tide ascends it for 80 miles, it is crowded
with shipping.
The Amur, the sources of which are partly in the Russian dominions,
though its course is chiefly in the Mantchoo territory of China, is 2000
miles long, including its windings, and has a basin of 853,000 square
miles. Almost all its tributaries come from that part of the Baikalian
group called the Yablonnoi Khrebit by the Russians, and Khing-Khan-Oola
by the Chinese. The river Onon, which is the parent stream, has its
origin in the Khentai Khan, a branch of the latter; and though its
course is through an uninhabited country, it is celebrated as being the
birthplace and the scene of the exploits of Tshingis Khan. After passing
through the lake of Dalai-nor, which is 210 miles in circumference, it
takes the name of Argun, and forms the boundary between the Chinese and
Russians for 400 miles; it is then joined by the Shilka, where it
assumes the Tunguse name of the Amur or Great River: the Mandchoos call
it the Sagalin or Black Water. It receives most of the unknown rivers
which come from the mountain-slopes of the Great Gobi, and falls into
the Pacific opposite to the island of Sagalin, after having traversed
three degrees of latitude and thirty-three of longitude.
Three great rivers, the Lena, the Yenessei, and the double system of the
Irtish and Oby, not inferior in size to any of the rivers of Asia, carry
off the waters of the Altaï chain, and of the mountains which bound the
northern border of the great Asiatic table-land. The Lena, whose basin
occupies 800,000 square miles, springs from mountains north of the Lake
of Baikal, and runs north-east through more than half its course to the
Siberian town of Yakutzk, the coldest town on the face of the earth,
receiving in its course the Vitim and the Olekma, its two principal
affluents, the former from the Baikal mountains, the latter from
Stannovoi Khrebit, the most southerly part of the Aldan range. North of
Yakutzk, about the 63d degree of latitude, the Lena receives the Aldan,
its greatest tributary, which also comes from the Stannovoi Khrebit; it
then goes to the Arctic Ocean, between banks of frozen mud, prodigious
masses of which are hurled down by the summer floods, and bring to view
the bones of those huge animals of extinct species which at some remote
period had found their nourishment in these desert plains. The length of
the Lena, including its windings, is 1900 miles.
A difference in the pressure of the air has been observed on the banks
of this river, on the shores of the Sea of Okhotzk, and at Kamchatka;
which indicates that in the distance of five degrees of latitude there
is an apparent difference in the level of the sea amounting to 139
feet.[122] A similar phenomenon was observed by Captain Foster near Cape
Horn, and by Sir James Ross throughout the South Polar Ocean.
The Yenessei, a much larger river than the Lena, drains about 1,000,000
square miles, and is formed by the union of the Great and Little Kem.
The former rises at the junction of the Sayansk range, with the
Baikalian mountains to the north-west of Lake Kassagol; the latter comes
from the Egtag or Little Altaï, in quite an opposite direction, so that
these two meet nearly at right angles, and take the name of Yenessei; it
then crosses the Sagaetses range in cataracts and rapids, entering the
plains of Siberia below the town of Krasnojarsk. Below this many rivers
join it, chiefly the Angara from the Lake Baikal; but its greatest
tributaries, the Upper and Lower Tunguska, both large rivers from the
Baikalian mountains, join it lower down, the first to the south, the
latter to the north of the town of Yeniseisk, whence it runs north to
the Icy Ocean, there forming a large gulf, its length, measured along
its bed, being 2500 miles.
The Oby rises in the Lake of Toleskoi, “the Lake of Gold,” in Great
Tartary; all the streams of the Lesser Altaï unite to swell it and its
great tributary the Irtish. The rivers which come from the northern
declivity of the mountains go to the Oby, those from the western side to
the Irtish, which springs from numerous streams on the south-western
declivity of the Little Altaï, and run westward into Lake Zaidzan, 200
miles in circumference. Issuing from thence, it takes a westerly course
to the plain on the north of Semipolatinsk. In the plain it is joined by
the Tobol, which crosses the steppe of the Kirghiz Cossacks from the
Ural Mountains, and soon unites with the Oby; the joint stream then
proceeds to the Arctic Ocean in 67° N. lat. The Oby is 2000 miles long,
and the basin of these two rivers occupies a third part of Siberia.
Before the Oby leaves the mountains, at a distance of 1200 miles from
the Arctic Ocean, its surface has an absolute elevation of not more than
400 feet, and the Irtish, at the same distance, is only 72 feet higher;
both are consequently sluggish. When the snow melts they cover the
country like seas; and as the inclination of the plains in the middle
and lower parts of their course is not sufficient to carry off the
water, those immense lakes and marshes are formed which characterize
this portion of Siberia.
The bed of the Oby is very deep, and there are no soundings at its
mouth; hence, the largest vessels might ascend at least to its junction
with the Irtish. Its many affluents also might admit ships, did not the
climate form an insurmountable obstacle the greater part of the year.
Indeed all Siberian rivers are frozen annually for many months, and even
the ocean along the Arctic coasts is rarely disencumbered from ice;
therefore these vast rivers never can be important as navigable streams;
but towards the mountains they afford water communication from the
steppe of Issim to the Pacific. They abound in fish and water-fowl, for
which the Siberian braves the extremest severity of the climate.
Local circumstances have nowhere produced a greater difference in the
human race than in the basins of the great rivers north and south of the
table-land of eastern Asia. The Indian, favoured by the finest climate,
and a soil which produces the luxuries of life, intersected with rivers
navigable at all seasons, and affording easy communication with the
surrounding nations, attained early a high degree of civilization; while
the Siberian and Samoide, doomed to contend with the rigours of the
polar blasts in order to obtain mere existence, have never risen beyond
the lowest grade of humanity; but custom softens the rigour of this
stern life, so that even here a share of happiness is enjoyed.