through the town, without a murmur or a pulse beat, its general course
from south-west to north-east, and its length about fifty miles; a
huge volume of matter, ceaselessly rolling through the plains and
valleys of the substantial earth with the moccasined tread of an Indian
Warrior, making haste from the high places of the earth to its ancient
reservoir. The murmurs of many a famous river on the other side of the
globe reach even to us here, as to more distant dwellers on its banks;
many a poet’s stream floating the helms and shields of heroes on its
bosom. The Xanthus or Scamander is not a mere dry channel and bed of a
mountain torrent, but fed by the overflowing springs of fame;--
“And thou Simois, that as an arrowe, clere
Through Troy rennest, aie downward to the sea”;--
and I trust that I may be allowed to associate our muddy but much
abused Concord River with the most famous in history.
“Sure there are poets which did never dream
Upon Parnassus, nor did taste the stream
Of Helicon; we therefore may suppose
Those made not poets, but the poets those.”
The Mississippi, the Ganges and the Nile, those journeying atoms from
the Rocky Mountains, the Himmaleh, and Mountains of the Moon, have a
kind of personal importance in the annals of the world. The heavens
are not yet drained over their sources, but the Mountains of the Moon
still send their annual tribute to the Pasha without fail, as they did
to the Pharaohs, though he must collect the rest of his revenue at the
point of the sword. Rivers must have been the guides which conducted
the footsteps of the first travellers. They are the constant lure, when
they flow by our doors, to distant enterprise and adventure, and, by a
natural impulse, the dwellers on their banks will at length accompany
their currents to the lowlands of the globe, or explore at their
invitation the interior of continents. They are the natural highways
of all nations, not only levelling the ground and removing obstacles
from the path of the traveller, quenching his thirst and bearing him on
their bosoms, but conducting him through the most interesting scenery,
the most populous portions of the globe, and where the animal and
vegetable kingdoms attain their greatest perfection.
I had often stood on the banks of the Concord, watching the lapse of
the current, an emblem of all progress, following the same law with the
system, with time, and all that is made; the weeds at the bottom gently
bending down the stream, shaken by the watery wind, still planted where
their seeds had sunk, but erelong to die and go down likewise; the
shining pebbles, not yet anxious to better their condition, the chips
and weeds, and occasional logs and stems of trees that floated past,
fulfilling their fate, were objects of singular interest to me, and
at last I resolved to launch myself on its bosom and float whither it
would bear me.
THE TAGUS
ARTHUR SHADWELL MARTIN
The Tagus rises in that maze of mountains between Cuenca and Tereul
on the frontier of New Castile and Aragon. It is the largest river of
the Iberian peninsula, having a length of 566 miles. It is of little
commercial advantage, however, as a means of traffic and communication,
because in Spain its shallows, rapids and cataracts render it
unnavigable through much of its course; and only from Villavelha,
eighteen miles within the Portuguese frontier does it become navigable
for the remaining 115 miles to its mouth. It flows from its source
first north-westwards for about thirty miles to its junction with the
Gallo, where it turns to the south-west to Toledo, whence it flows
westwards to the frontier of Portugal at Abrantes. There it again
curves south-westwards and falls into the Atlantic ten miles below
Lisbon.
[Illustration: THE TAGUS]
The waves of the Tagus, according to ancient historians, rolled with
gold; it is even said that the sceptre of the kings of Portugal is
made of the gold dust found in the deposit of this river. However, the
Tagus is not now endowed with this auriferous virtue; and its banks
in nowise deserve the brilliant descriptions indulged in by ancient
and modern poets. They are generally escarpments and rocky gorges. The
traveller, who follows the course of the stream through a country often
bare, arid and uncultivated, or burnt up by the sultry rays of the sun,
sees little but an impetuous water course, narrow and impeded with
dangerous rocks, forming dangerous cataracts and rapids. The rocky
cliffs that hem it in have little vegetation beyond a few evergreen
oaks; and with a few rare exceptions, notably the valleys of Aranjuez
and Talavera, which have been embellished with human art and culture
there are few parts of Spain so poor and savage in character. In
winter, the Tagus has a considerable rise, and covers the few plains to
be found along its banks; but in summer, like most of the other Spanish
rivers it dwindles to almost nothing; so that even below Santarem, from
Alcantara to the confluence of the Zezere, navigation is interrupted by
numerous cataracts.
“Of the various phases of its most poetical and picturesque
course--first green and arrowy amid the yellow cornfields of New
Castile; then freshening the sweet Tempe of Aranjuez, clothing the
garden with verdure, and filling the nightingale-tenanted glens
with groves; then boiling and rushing around the granite ravines of
rock-built Toledo, hurrying to escape from the cold shadows of its deep
prison, and dashing joyously into light and liberty, to wander far away
into silent plains and on to Talavera, where its waters were dyed with
brave blood, and gladly reflected the flash of the victorious bayonets
of England,--triumphantly it rolls thence, under the shattered arches
of Almaraz, down to desolate Estremadura, in a stream as tranquil as
the azure sky by which it is curtained, yet powerful enough to force
the mountains of Alcantara. There the bridge of Trajan is worth going
a hundred miles to see; it stems the now fierce condensed stream, and
ties the rocky gorges together; grand, simple, and solid, tinted by the
tender colours of seventeen centuries, it looms like the grey skeleton
of Roman power, with all the sentiment of loneliness, magnitude, and
the interest of the past and present.
“How stern, solemn, and striking is this Tagus of Spain! No commerce
has ever made it its highway--no English steamer has ever civilized
its waters like those of France and Germany. Its rocks have witnessed
battles, not peace; have reflected castles and dungeons, not quays or
warehouses: few cities have risen on its banks, as on those of the
Thames and Rhine; it is truly a river of Spain--that isolated and
solitary land. Its waters are without boats, its banks without life;
man has never laid his hand upon its billows, nor enslaved their free
and independent gambols.”
Travellers and tourists never take in the river as a whole, but content
themselves with keeping to the railroad, and visiting the more famous
towns on the banks,--such as Toledo, Talavera, Aranjuez, Abrantes and
Lisbon.
At Toledo, the Tagus ages ago forced its way through a romantic, rocky
pass, 2,400 feet above the level of the sea. The walls of the gorge
are 200 feet high. This ancient city stands on the north bank of
the river which washes its walls on three sides and forms the great
protection of the stronghold. Rushing around it, on the east, south and
west, between rocky cliffs, it leaves only one approach on the land
side, which is defended by an inner and an outer wall. Its magnificent
cathedral still repays a visit notwithstanding the vandalism of its
foes. The river, after passing Toledo, runs through a deep and long
valley, walled up on either hand by lofty mountains. Those on the right
bank are always capped with snow, and ranging nearly parallel with the
course of the stream, divide the valley of the Tagus from Old Castile
and the Salamanca country; the highest parts are known by the names
of the Sierra de Gredos, Sierra de Bejar, and Sierra de Gata. In these
sierras the Alberche, the Tietar, and the Alagon, take their rise, and,
ploughing the valley in a slanting direction, fall into the Tagus.
Talavera de la Reyna is a delapidated ancient town surrounded with
interesting old walls, and abounding in antique picturesque fragments.
It is situated on the Tagus, seventy-five miles south-west of Madrid,
in the centre of a fruit-growing district. It is famous for the great
battle fought there in 1809 in which the French suffered a great defeat
by Wellington.
Aranjuez is on the left bank of the river, twenty-eight miles
south-west of Madrid, in a beautifully wooded valley. Here, for once,
the stream runs smoothly between smiling banks.
Abrantes is finely situated on the river seventy miles above Lisbon.
Its surrounding hills are covered with vineyards and olive groves;
it is strongly fortified, and was an important position during the
Peninsula war. Marshal Junot took this city as the title of his Dukedom.
Lisbon is built partly on the right bank of the Tagus and partly on
hills behind. It extends for five miles along the estuary, which here
forms a safe and spacious harbour.
The principal affluents of this neglected river are the Jarama,
Guaddarama, Alberche, Alagon and Zezere from the north, and the
Guadiela and Rio del Monte from the south.
THE INDUS
EDWARD BALFOUR
The source of the Indus is in latitude 31° 20′ north, and longitude 80°
30′ east, at an estimated height of 17,000 feet, to the north-west of
Lakes Manasarowara and Rawan H’rad in the southern slopes of the Gangri
or Kailas Mountains, a short way to the eastwards of Gartop (Garo).
The Garo river is the Sing-ge-chu or Indus. From the lofty mountains
round Lake Manasarowara, spring the Indus, the Sutlej, the Gogra, and
the Brahmaputra. A few miles from Leh, about a mile above Nimo, the
Indus is joined by the Zanskar river. The valley where the two rivers
unite is very rocky and precipitous, and bends a long way to the south.
From this point the course of the Indus, in front of Leh and to the
south-east for many miles, runs through a wide valley, but the range
of the mountains to the north sends down many rugged spurs. A little
lower, the Indus is a tranquil but somewhat rapid stream, divided into
several branches by gravelly islands, generally swampy, and covered
with low Hippophae scrub. The size of the river there is very much less
than below the junction of the river of Zanskar. The bed of the Indus
at Pitak, below Leh, has an elevation of about 10,500 feet above the
level of the sea, but the town is at least 1,300 feet higher. From the
sudden melting of accumulations of ice, and from temporary obstacles,
occasioned by glaciers and avalanches in its upper course, this river
is subject to irregularities, and especially to debacles or cataclysms,
one of which, in June, 1841, produced terrific devastation along its
course, down even to Attock.
At the confluence of Sinh-ka-bab with the Shayok, the principal river
which joins it on the north from the Kara-Korum Mountains, the river
takes the name of Aba-Sin, Father of Rivers, or Indus proper, and flows
then between lofty rocks, which confine its furious waters, receiving
the tribute of various streams; and at Acho, expanding into a broader
surface, it reaches Derbend, the north-west angle of the Panjab, where
(about 815 miles from its source) it is 100 yards wide in August, its
fullest season. From Derbend it traverses a plain, in a broad channel
of no great depth in Attock, in latitude 33° 54′ north, longitude 72°
18′ east, having about 200 yards above this place received the river of
Kabul, almost equal in breadth and volume, and attains a width of 286
yards, with a rapid boiling current, running (in August) at the rate of
six miles an hour. The breadth of the Indus at Attock depends not only
upon the season but the state of the river upwards, and varies from
100 to 260 yards. The whole length of its mountain course, from its
source to Attock, is about 1,035 miles, and the whole fall is 16,000
feet, or 15.4 per mile. From Attock to the sea the length is 942 miles,
making its whole length, from the Kailas Mountains to the Indian Ocean,
1,977 miles. Its maximum discharge, above the confluence of the Panjab
or Five Rivers, occurs in July and August, when it is swollen by the
seasonal rains, and it then reaches 135,000 cubic feet, falling to its
minimum of 15,000 in December.
In the Tibetan of Ladakh it is commonly designated Tsang-po, or the
river, and is the Lampo-ho of the Chinese Pilgrim, Hiwen Thsang, who
travelled in the middle of the Seventh Century.
Below the junction of the Panjab rivers down to Schwan, the Indus takes
the name of Sar, Siro, or Sira; from below Hyderabad to the sea it
is called Lar, and the intermediate portion is called Wicholo (Bich,
Hindi), or Central, representing the district lying immediately around
Hyderabad, just as, on the Nile, the Wustani, or Midlands of the Arabs,
represents the tract between Upper and Lower Egypt. Sir A. Burnes
mentions that Sar and Lar are two Baluch words for north and south. The
Indus or Sind has been called by that name from time immemorial to the
present day, by the races on its banks. The ancients knew that this was
the native appellation. Pliny (lib. 6, vi), says, “Indus incolis Sindus
appellatus.” The Chinese call the river Sin-tow.
From Attock the course of the Indus to the sea, 940 miles, is south
and south-west, sometimes along a rocky channel, between high and
perpendicular cliffs, or forcing its way, tumbling and roaring, amidst
huge boulders, the immense body of water being pent within a narrow
channel, causing occasional whirlpools, dangerous to navigation, to
Kalabagh, in latitude 32° 57′ north, longitude 71° 36′ east, situated
in a gorge of the great Salt Range, through which the river rushes
forth into the plain. In this part of its course it has acquired the
name of Nil-ab, or Blue Water, from the colour imparted to it by the
blue limestone hills through which it flows. There are some remains of
a town on the bank of the river, named Nil-ab (where Timur crossed the
Indus) supposed to be the Naulibus or Naulibe of Ptolemy. At Kalabagh
the Indus enters a level country, having for a short time the Khursuri
Hills, which rise abruptly on the right. It now becomes muddy, and as
far as Mittunkote, about 350 miles, the banks being low, the river,
when it rises, inundates the country sometimes as far as the eye can
reach. Hence the channels are continually changing, and the soil of
the country being soft--a mud basin, as Lieutenant Wood terms it,--the
banks and bed of the river are undergoing constant alterations. These
variations, added to the shoals, and the terrific blasts occasionally
encountered in this part of the river, are great impediments to
navigation. The population on its banks are almost amphibious; they
launch upon its surface, sustained by the inflated skins or mussaks,
dried gourds, and empty jars used for catching the celebrated pulla
fish, the Hilsa of Bengal. At Mittunkote the Indus is often 2,000
yards broad, and near this place, in latitude 28° 55′ north, longitude
70° 28′ east, it is joined, without violence, by the Panjnad, a large
navigable stream, the collected waters of the Sutlej, Beas, Ravi,
Chenab, and Jhelum. Its true channel, then a mile and a quarter wide,
flows thence through Sind, sometimes severed into distinct streams, and
discharges its different branches by various mouths into the Indian
Ocean, after a course of 1,977 miles. The Indus, when joined by the
Panjnad, never shallows, in the dry season, to less than fifteen feet,
and seldom preserves so great a breadth as half a mile. Keeled boats
are not suited to its navigation, as they are liable to be upset. The
Zoruk, or native boat, is flat-bottomed. Other boats are the Dundi,
Dund, Kotal, and Jumpti. Gold is found in some parts of the sands of
the Indus.
The shore of its delta, about 125 miles in extent, is low and flat,
and at high tide, to a considerable distance inland, overflowed; and
generally a succession of dreary, bare swamps.
In the mouths of the Indus, the tides rise about nine feet at full
moon, and flow and ebb with great violence, particularly near the sea,
when they flood and abandon the banks with incredible velocity. At
seventy-five miles from the ocean they cease to be perceptible.
Between the Seer and Kori mouths, at the south-east of the delta, it is
overspread with low mangrove jungle, running far into the sea, and from
the Seer is a bare, uninhabited marsh. The main stream of the Indus has
discharged its waters at many points between Cape Monze, immediately
west of Kurachee and gulf of Cutch, if not even that of Cambay. Pitti,
Hajamri, and Kediwari, now sea-channels and tidal creeks, shut off from
the river, except during the monsoon, are all former mouths of the
Indus. The Buggaur or Gharra is still a considerable stream during the
inundation; it takes off from the Indus close to Tatta.
Transcriber's Notes:
Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.
Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.
Perceived typographical errors have been changed.