Its navigation.
The Ravee is fordable in many places during eight months in the year, but its general depth is about twelve feet, and I am satisfied that a vessel drawing four or five feet of water could navigate this river. The boats of the country do not draw more than two or three, but they are the common flat-bottomed craft already described. There is no obstruction to these vessels in any season of the year, yet the Ravee is not used by the merchants, and the boats are only built for purposes of ferrying. Below Lahore there are fifty-two of them, we ascended in these vessels, none others being procurable. The voyage occupied twenty-one days, and was exceedingly tedious. I am disposed to think that it is the extreme crookedness of the river which prevents its being navigated.
Peculiarities of the Ravee.
The Ravee is a foul river, much studded with sand banks, many of which are dangerous quicksands. The zigzag course it pursues, bespeaks the flat nature of the country it traverses; its banks are more firm and decided than those of the Indus, or any other of the Punjab rivers. Near Lahore, they rise sometimes to a perpendicular height of forty feet; in many places they attain half that elevation, and give to the river much the appearance of a canal. The country bordering on the Ravee is little liable to be flooded; and it is worthy of remark, that there are no cuts from this river, for the purposes of agriculture, below Lahore. Its current is something less than three miles an hour. The water is of a reddish colour, like the Chenab; but it is liable to change, as we remarked in our voyage, from the fall of rain in the mountains. This river is sometimes called Iräoty, in which we recognise the Hydraotes of the Greeks.
Towns, and their inhabitants.
The banks of the Ravee are open, and peopled from its mouth upwards; but the villages, for half the distance to the capital, are of a temporary description, the moveable hamlets of the pastoral tribe before mentioned, called Jun or Kattia. From Futtipoor they are numerous, and the country is cultivated; but the space below that town is uncultivated. The tract between the Ravee and Sutlege is of the same sterile and unproductive description as on the northern side of the river towards the Hydaspes. Saltpetre is manufactured in considerable quantities on both sides of the Ravee.
Lahore.
Lahore is the only town of note on the banks of the Ravee, but the river has lately forsaken its immediate vicinity, and this ancient capital now stands on a small branch. The position of Lahore is good, in a military and commercial point of view. It is equidistant from Mooltan, Peshawur, Cashmeer, and I may also add Delhi. It stands in a most fertile country; and an army of 80,000 men has been supported on the resources of its neighbourhood, while the people assert that provisions have not increased with the increased demand. The city now contains about 80,000 inhabitants. It is surrounded by a strong brick wall and ditch, that may be flooded from the river. There are twelve gates, and as many semicircular outworks. It could not withstand a siege, from the density of its population; but might afford security against irregular troops. Umritsir is superior in size and strength to Lahore: it is a mud fortification of great thickness, and about seven miles in circumference, and also protected by the strong citadel of Govindghur. It has a population of about 100,000 souls. Tolumba is a small town near the estuary of the Ravee, with a population of about 1500 people. It has a weak brick fort of a circular shape, and stands in a thick grove of date trees two miles south of the river.
Drawn by W. Purser. Engraved by E. Finden.