INDUS.
Sam-po-ho, . . . CHIN. Sind'hu, the adjective Sin-tow, . . . „ Saind'hava, . SANSK.
Sinthus, . . . GR. Sing-ge-chu or Lion Tsang-po, . . LADAKH. river, . . TIBETAN.
Aba-Sin, . . . . „ Sinh-ka-bab or Lion's Sindus, . . . . LAT. I mouth-descended, „ Nil-ab, . . . . PERS.
The source of the Indus is in lat. 31° 20' N., and long. 30' E., at an estimated height of 17,000 feet, to the N.W. of Lakes Manasarowara and Rawan H'rad in the southern slopes of the Gaugri or Kailas mountains, a short way to the eastward of Gartop (Garo). The Garo river is the Sing-ge-chu or Indus. From the lofty moun tains round Lake Manasarowara, spring the Indus, tho 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 tho 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 S.E. for many miles, runs through a wide valley, but the range of 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 Hippophao 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 1300 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, pro duced 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 Karakorum 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, ex panding into a broader surface, it reaches Der bend, the N.W. angle of the Panjab, where (about
815 miles from its source) it is 100 yards ivide in August, its fullest season. From Derbend it traverses a plain, in a broad channel of no great depth in Attock, in lat. 33° 54' N., long. 72° 18' E., 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 up wards, and varies from 100 to 260 yards. The whole length of its mountain course, from its source to Attock, is about 1035 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 moun tain to the Indian Ocean, 1977 miles. Its maxi mum 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 de signated Tsang-po, or the river, and is the Sampo-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 Selman, 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 1Vustani, or Midlands of the Arabs, represents the tract between Upper and Lower Egypt. Sir A. Burnes mentions that Sar and Lar are two Baluchi words for north and south. Tho Indus or Sind has been called by that name from time immemorial to the present day, by the races on its banks. Tho ancients knew that this was the native appellation. Pliny (lib. 6, vi.) says, Indus incolis Sindus appcllatus.' The Chinese call the river Sin-tow.