Note 99 — Chapter IX
Reading edition
When the railway to Peshawer is made, it will have to cross the Indus either by a bridge, or to go under it by a tunnel at Attock, a thousand feet above sea-level, and 942 miles from the river’s mouth. For many miles above this great fortress the river flows in a wide divided stream at no great velocity; but as it approaches Attock, it becomes contracted and united, the velocity increases, and during the wet season it flows past the fortress at the rate of fully thirteen miles an hour. Numerous schemes have been tried for bridging the Indus at this point, but none have been successful, owing to the enormous difference of the water level at different periods of the year. It was therefore proposed, in 1859, to carry a tunnel under the river, and some progress was made with the work. Further reference to this subject will be found at a subsequent page.